Genesis and Development
of Tantrism
Edited by
Shingo ElNOO
Institute of Oriental Culture
University of Tokyo
Genesis and Development
of Tantrism
Institute of Oriental Culture Special Series, 23
Shingo Einoo is Professor of Indology at the
Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo
© March, 2009, INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL CULTURE,
UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
All rights reserved
The authors:
Shingo ElNOO
Dominic GOODALL
Taiken Kyuma
Alexis Sanderson
Francesco Sferra
Tsunehiko SUGIKI
Kimiaki TANAKA
Ryugen TANEMURA
University of Tokyo
Pondicherry Centre of the Ecole francaise
d'Extreme-Orient
Mie University
All Souls College, Oxford
Universita degli Studi di Napoli "LOrientale"
Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda
University
The Eastern Institute
University of Tokyo
ISBN 978-4-903235-08-0
Printed in Japan
Contents
Preface 9
Introduction 11
Shingo ElNOO : From kamas to siddhis — Tendencies in the Development
of Ritual towards Tantrism — 17
Alexis SANDERSON : The Saiva Age — The Rise and Dominance of Saivism
during the Early Medieval Period — 41
The Dominance of Saivism 44
The Incorporation of Saktism 45
The Etiolation and Subsumption of the Cult of the Sun-God . 53
The Decline ofVaisnavism and the Rise of the Tantric
Pancaratra Following Saiva Models 58
Royal Patronage of Buddhism 70
The Visnukundis of Andhra 70
The Maitrakas ofValabhl 72
The Karkotas of Kashmir 73
The Licchavis of Nepal 74
The Thakurl Kings of Nepal 77
The Bhauma-Karas of Orissa 80
The Candras of South-East Bengal 83
The Khadgas of Samatata 83
The Candras of Arakan and Miscellaneous Other
Buddhist Kings of Eastern India 84
The Pala Emperors and the Great Monasteries
of Eastern India 87
The Palas' Engagement with Saivism 108
Buddhist Kings of Eastern India and their Commitment
to Brahmanism 115
Joint Patronage of Buddhism and Saivism in the Kingdoms
of the Khmers, Chams, and Javanese 117
The Development of Tantric Buddhism Through the Adoption
and Adaptation of Saiva and Sakta Saiva Models 124
The Parallel Repertoire of Rituals 124
The Mahavairocanabhisambodhi, the Mahjusriya-
mulakalpa, and Buddhaguhya 128
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Sarvatathagatattvasamgraha and the First Inroads
ofSakta Saivism: Possession, Goddesses,
and the Sacralization of Sex 132
The Guhyasamaja: Copulating Deities, Sexual Initiation
Rites, and the Sacralization of Impurity 141
The Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara: Heruka
and his Yoginis, Kapalika iconography, the Ganamandalam,
and the Beginning of Saiva-Buddhist Intertextuality . . . 145
The Yoginltantras and the Full Appropriation
of Vidyapltha Saivism 156
Chronology and Provenance 158
Samvara /Vajrarudra and Vajravarahl:
The Transformation of Bhairava and his consort . . 169
The Rise of the Goddess to Independence 173
The Adoption of the Vidyapltha's Carya and Yoga . 179
The Incorporation of Text-passages
from the Vidyapltha 186
Converting the Outsiders 220
The Reflux of Buddhist Saktism into
the Saktism of Bengal 240
The Jains' Adaptation of the Saiva Mantrasastra 243
Saivism in the Brahmanical Substrate 249
The Causes of the Dominance of Saivism 252
The Early Medieval Process 252
Saivism and Monarchy 254
Saivism and the Royal Temple 274
Saivism and New Settlements 280
Saivism and Irrigation 282
Saivism and Social Integration 284
The Saiva-brahmanical Order 301
Abbreviations 304
References 305
Conventions in the Footnotes 348
Dominic GOODALL : Who is Candesa ? 351
Kimiaki TANAKA : Nagabodhi's Srl-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
— The Sanskrit Text Restored from the Vajracaryanayottama — 425
Francesco SFERRA : The Laud of the Chosen Deity, the First Chapter of the
Hevajratantrapindarthatlka by Vajragarbha 435
Taiken KYUMA : Superiority of Vajrayana — Part I: Some Remarks on the
-6-
Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje thegpa'i mtha' gnis sel ba)
Ascribed to Jnanasri — 469
Ryugen TANEMURA : Superiority of Vajraydna — Part II: Superiority of the
Tantric Practice Taught in the *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje
theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba) — 487
Tsunehiko SUGIKI : The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
in Buddhist Samvara Cycle and Its Related Scriptural Cycles in Early
Medieval South Asia — The Geography of Esoteric Buddhism in the Eyes of
the Compilers of the Scriptures — 515
-7-
Preface
The present volume is the outcome of an international workshop on
Tantrism held on October 3-4, 2005 at the Institute of Oriental Culture, the
University of Tokyo. The speakers and their titles were as follows:
Shingo Einoo:
Yuko Yokochi:
Dominic Goodall:
Francesco Sferra:
Alexis Sanderson:
Taiken Kyuma:
Ryugen Tanemura:
Harunaga Isaacson:
Tsunehiko Sugiki:
Kimiaki Tanaka:
From kdmas to siddhis: Tendencies in the Development of
Ritual towards Tantrism
The Local Goddess Worship in an Early Saiva Centre
Kotivarsa, Devikota or Sonitapura
Who is Candesvara?
Constructing the Wheel of Time: Strategies for Establish-
ing a Tradition
The Saiva Age: An Explanation of the Rise and Dominance
of Saivism during the Early Medieval Period
Some Remarks on "rDo rje theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba (*Va-
jrayanantadvayapoha)" Ascribed to Jnanasri
Superiority of Tantric Performance or Post-initiatory Ob-
servance (caryd) Taught in the *Vajrayanantadvayapoha
of Jnanasri
The System of Hevajra Practice Associated with Dombi-
heruka
Theories on the Cycle of Time, Calendar, and For-
tunetelling Introduced in Tantric Buddhism in the Classic
Indian Context
Nagabodhi's Sriguhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-
vidhi: The Sanskrit Text Restored from the Vajracarya-
nayottama
Eight of the above-listed participants have contributed to the Proceedings.
I must apologize to the contributors that it has taken more than three years
to publish the proceedings of the workshop. I would like to express my gratitude
to Dr. Ryugen Tanemura who has kindly worked to prepare the final version of
this volume by TeX compiler.
Tokyo
24 December 2008
Shingo ElNOO
-9-
Introduction
Shingo ElNOO
The Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project has recently made
available many new manuscripts for the use of Indologists, and this has con-
tributed to significant progress in Tantric studies. The articles introduced below,
with the exception to that of Einoo, have to a greater or lesser extent made use
of these materials. In this sense, this volume can claim to represent the newest
research on the subject.
The first article in the collection is entitled "From kdmas to siddhis: tenden-
cies in the development of ritual towards Tantrism" (Shingo Einoo) Vedic rituals
are generally performed to obtain certain desires, and were, for the people of
ancient India, a reliable way to fulfill their objectives. Some Tantric rites too
claim to bring about the attainment of wishes. The objectives of such rites are
usually referred to as siddhis or supernatural powers and belong rather to the
category of supernatural phenomena. Thus they seem to be considerably differ-
ent from the types of wish people expected to gain from the Vedic rituals that
still remained within the sphere of everyday life. In his article Einoo attempts
to trace changes in the selection of objectives in Vedic rituals, and in the selec-
tion of siddhis in Tantric rites by examining some Vedic and post-Vedic texts.
First, he analyses the Rgvidhana in order to discover what purposes and effects
were expected and then the Samavidhanabrahmana. After that he compares the
results obtained from the analysis of these two vidhana texts with the kdmya
rites given in the Gobhilagrhyasutra. Among the Tantric ritual texts he has
selected the Vinasikhatantra as an example of a Hindu Tantric text and the
Amoghapasakalparaja as a text of Buddhist Tantrism to take an overview of the
tendency towards a development from obtaining desires (kdmas) in the Vedic
texts to getting supernatural powers (sidhis) in the Tantric texts.
The second article is "The Saiva age: an explanation of the rise and domi-
nance of Saivism during the early medieval period" (Alexis Sanderson). To de-
scribe it, I would like to draw upon the author's excellent summary provided
for the workshop, which I reproduce here with slight changes. "The early me-
dieval period, from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries, saw a decline in the
role played by the Vaidikas in general and the Atharvavedins in particular in
the religious ceremonies sponsored by the court. Kings continued to make land-
grants to Vaidika brahmins in order to promote agricultural expansion and the
cultural penetration of new territory, and they continued to impose and uphold
the brahmanical social order, but their personal devotion shifted to the deities of
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the initiatory religions that integrated the brahmanical tradition but claimed to
rise beyond it, or to Mahayana Buddhism, especially in its Tantric development.
Among these alternatives Saivism was the most widely favoured. In the decla-
rations of religious adherence included with the titles attached in inscriptions to
the names of rulers the epithet paramamahesvarah 'supremely devoted to Siva'
is much the most frequent in this period, and of the many surviving temples
established by rulers throughout the subcontinent and Southeast Asia from the
late sixth century onwards those dedicated to the worship of Siva are much the
most numerous. The dominance of Saivism is also manifest in the fact that the
other main bidders for royal patronage, Buddhism, Pancaratrika Vaisnavism,
and Jainism, as well as the earlier forms of Saivism itself, were fundamentally
revised or expanded along the lines of the Saiva Mantramarga as they sought
to maintain their hold on the sources of patronage. As for the other two cults
that held the allegiance of kings during this period, those of the Goddess and the
Sun-God, the former was progressively subsumed within Saivism, and the latter,
though once equipped with its own canon of scriptures, suffered a similar fate."
In his article Sanderson argues from ample textual and epigraphic evidence that
Saivism rose to its position of dominance by expanding and adapting its reper-
toire to contain a body of rituals and normative prescriptions that legitimated,
empowered, or promoted the key elements of the social, political and economic
process that in its various regional adaptations characterized the working of the
state in the early medieval period.
Dominic Goodall presents the third article "Who is Candesa?" Candesa is re-
ferred to variously as Candesvara, Candikesvara, Candisa, Canda and, in Tamil
sources, as Canti and Tanti and he is treated as a guardian to Saiva shrines,
as a warrior leader of ganas, as the consumer of offerings that have been made
to Siva, as the punisher of the transgressions of Saiva initiates, as Siva's agent
in property transactions, as the transmitter of Saiva knowledge and as a super-
bhakta who severed his own father's legs because of his father's impiety. Some
evidence suggests that Candesvara is a form of Siva or a manifestation of his
anger, but other evidence presents him as agana, as Siva's chief devotee or as his
principal servant. Goodall admits that this figure emerges as a rather jumbled
picture. He minutely discusses these various identities and concludes that Canda
was at one time and for certain groups a form of Siva himself and not originally
Saiddhantika. It is true that Candesa occurs only rarely in non-Saiddhantika
tantric material. Candesa was, however, represented elsewhere and such repre-
sentations have either been destroyed or have not been recognized because their
iconographies were so different. The many undatable but early free-standing
Candesas that are found in South India are independent of the Saiva Siddhanta.
-12-
Introduction
Candesa has thus been incorporated into the Siddhanta from an existing tradi-
tion. His association with the Siddhanta today might well be the result of the
Siddhanta's attempt to gradually appropriate to itself the role of decreeing how
temple worship should be conducted in South India and the nirmalya-bearing
Candesa in turn was from the first a Saiddhantika figure, because food offerings
to the linga became invested with terrible power and had therefore to be con-
sumed by an especially fierce form of Siva himself. His flourishing in the South
was in part a consequence of the popularity of the legend known to Tamil sources
as the transformation of the shepherd Vicarasarman into the mr/na^ya-receiving
Candesa, the first servant of the Lord and the archetype of the Mahesvara devo-
tee. Goodall's discussion is corroborated not only by textual evidence but also
forty -four photographs of Candesa taken from various parts of India. These pic-
tures, mostly in colour, are collected in the beginning of this volume.
The fourth article "Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamaja- mandalopayika-vimsati-
vidhi: The Sanskrit text restored from the Vajracaryanayottama" (Kimiaki
Tanaka) is concerned with the Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi,
attributed to Nagabodhi, who belonged to the Arya school of interpretation of the
Guhyasamajatantra. It is a ritual manual for the thirty-two-deity mandala of
the Guhyasamajatantra with Aksobhyavajra in its centre and is one of the basic
texts for mandala rites in late Tantric Buddhism. This important text has been
long missing but Tanaka has found that the Vajracaryanayottama includes a
work combining this text with explanatory comments. He has already published
all the chapters of the Vimsatividhi recovered from the Vajracaryanayottama
in various other publications, and is now preparing to combine these separate
chapters into a monograph with the present paper serving as a general intro-
duction to the text. He states that this text can be dated to the period from the
middle of the 8 th century to the early 9 th century, when Tantric Buddhism was
introduced to Tibet for the first time.
The fifth article "The laud of the chosen deity, the first chapter of the
Hevajratantrapindarthatika by Vajragarbha" (Francesco Sferra) is a new edition
and English translation of the text one of the first works of the Kalacakra
tradition. This chapter describes the characteristics of the true interpreter of
the scriptures, establishes the hermeneutical criteria for their interpretation
and gives an important role to the Adibuddha, which is believed to be the inula
text of the Laghukalacakratantra. This chapter is therefore fundamental for
an understanding of the founding strategies of the Kalacakra system and of its
early masters.
The sixth article is entitled "Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I: some remarks
on the *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba) as-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
cribed to Jnanasri" (Taiken Kyuma). In late Indian Buddhism one and the same
author sometimes wrote both Tantric and non-Tantric works. In such cases it is
not always clear how the author estimated Tantric and non-Tantric Buddhism.
The text discussed by Kyuma offers a good example to clarify this problem, be-
cause it is ascribed to Jnanasri, an author of works both on Tantric and non-
Tantric Buddhism, and it teaches the superiority of Tantric Buddhism over non-
Tantric Buddhism. In order to show how the author proves the superiority of
Tantric Buddhism Kyuma gives a rather detailed synopsis of the text, largely de-
voted to an explanation of the eleven means characteristic of Tantric Buddhism
alone. Then he discusses in detail the identification of Jnanasri, because both
Jnanasrimitra and Jnanasribhadra are known simply as Jnanasri; he concludes
that the author of this text is certainly Jnanasrimitra.
The *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana demonstrated the superiority of
Tantric Buddhism over non-Tantric Buddhism through the eleven kinds of
skillful means, of which the eleventh insists that the Tantric practice is supe-
rior because it rejects the three wrong practices: (1) practices which weaken
the faculties of the practitioner, (2) practices which distract the mind of the
practitioner, and (3) practices which produce the cognition that things are real
and exist. In this way Jnanasri justifies the following three points: (1) Tantric
Buddhism takes a negative attitude toward traditional Buddhist asceticism, (2)
it distances itself from adherence to external religious acts such as the worship
of a stupa and the recitation of a scripture, and (3) Tantric practice involves
consumption of impure substances. These assertions can be found also in earlier
scriptures and other scholastic treatises. By examining these statements and
comparing them with the opinions of Jnanasri, Ryugen Tanemura attempts in
his article, the seventh, "Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II: superiority of the
tantric practice taught in the *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje theg pa'i
mtha' ghis sel bet)", to ascertain the position of Jnanasri among discussions of
Tantric practices.
The last article, "The structure and traditions of the systems of holy sites
in Buddhist Samvara cycle and its related scriptural cycles in early medieval
South Asia: the geography of esoteric Buddhism in the eyes of the compilers of
the scriptures" (Tsunehiko Sugiki), discusses the post-Gupta era Buddhist de-
velopment of an orthodox system of eight great sites closely related with eight
great deeds performed by the Buddha, and the later introduction by esoteric
Buddhism of new systems of holy sites seemingly from outside. The Samvara cy-
cle, on which his article focuses, contains many scriptures and scholastic works
and each of them describes the system of holy sites from various perspectives.
Sugiki analyses the complicated materials by first classifying the descriptions of
-14-
Introduction
holy sites into four typological traditions: (1) twenty-four holy sites systematized
on the basis of ten categories introduced from the Saiva text Tantrasadbhava
into the Cakrasamvaratantra, (2) twenty-four holy sites systematized on the ba-
sis of twelve categories introduced into the Hevajratantra and adopted into the
Samvara cycle, partly related with the Kaula and Sakta tradition, (3) twenty-
four holy sites without systematization introduced from the Kubjikamatatantra
into the Vajradakatantra, and (4) seventy-two holy sites as residing places of
seventy-two magical female beings introduced into the Dakarnavatantra and
found also in the Kalacakratantra. According to his analysis these systems of
holy sites have two levels and the first level, i.e. the system of practice, has
three dimensions, namely (1) holy sites as geographical locations, (2) holy sites
as a mandala to be drawn or to be visualized, and (3) holy sites as an internal
mandala identical with the structure of the practitioner's body. On the other
hand the second level consists of the aetiological myth of the twenty-four holy
sites. Sugiki clarifies how the Samvara cycle in its various texts developed the
systems of holy sites which had been introduced from outside into its particular
esoteric Buddhist version by the involvement of the orthodox Mahayana Buddist
doctrines and the internalization of external practices.
As Sanderson's contribution clearly shows, many of the articles in this
volume take into consideration both Hindu Tantrism and Buddhist Tantrism.
Tantric studies have taken a new turn, where relationships and parallelism
between different trends of Tantrism are examined extensively. The relationship
between Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism will be the subject of a special panel
organized by Goodall and Einoo at the 14 th World Sanskrit Conference to be held
in Kyoto September 1-5, 2009. It is hoped that the new tendencies brought into
the Tantric studies in this volume will bear even richer fruit at this conference.
-15-
From kamas to siddhis
— Tendencies in the Development of Ritual towards Tantrism —
Shingo ElNOO
1 Introductory remarks
Vedic rituals are generally performed to obtain certain desires, of which the most
common are the prosperity of progeny (prajd) and cattle ipasu). 1 There is a cer-
tain group of Vedic rituals which are referred to as "kdmya". Those which are per-
formed following the basic pattern of the new and full-moon sacrifice are called
kdmyesti 2 and those performed according to the basic pattern of animal sacrifice
are called kdmyapasu. 3 According to the analysis of W. Caland, the objectives
expected of the kamyestis are: progeny, cattle, prosperity (pusti), dignity of the
Brahmin (brahmavarcasa), gold, the position of royal chaplain (purodhd), well-
being (bhuti), village, to conquer rivals (bhratrvya), sorcery (abhicdra), concord,
for one who is cursed, for a dethroned king, to win a battle, longevity, against pos-
session by demons, eyesight (caksus), against consumption (rdjayaksma), rain,
expiation of ritual defects (prdyascitta), etc. (Caland 1908: VI-VII).
There is a Vedic sacrifice called cdturmdsya, a ritual complex that consists of
the vaisvadeva performed in spring, the varunapraghdsa performed in the rainy
season and the sdkamedha performed in autumn (Einoo 1988). In a previous
article I explored what purpose each constituent rite performed at the different
seasons aimed at and came to the conclusion that "The vaisvadeva, the first rite
of the cdturmdsya, assures that progeny and cattle are born safely and constantly
and that they will grow well by means of ample food. But the life of human be-
ings is never without danger; the god Varuna punishes the transgressions one
commits, one must overcome conflict with rivals (bhratrvya) and Rudra sends
damage to human beings and cattle, frequently without any cause. So the sacri-
ficer appeases Varuna by performing the varunapraghdsa, overcomes his rivals
1 In the Brahmanas the expression prajayd pasubhih prajdyate "progeny and cattle
are born constantly" and other similar expressions occur very often. For a collection
of such expressions, see Oertel 1994 (1943): 1552-1565.
2 For the kamyestis, see Caland 1908 (1968).
3 No detailed study exists for the kdmyapasus like that of the kamyestis. Du-
mont 1962: 246-263 and Dumont 1969: 34-66 translate TB 3.6 and TB 2.8 which
deal with the kdmyapasus. Srautakosa, Vol. 1, Sanskrit Section, Poona: Vaidika
Samsodhana Mandala, 1958, pp. 606-697 and Srautakosa, Vol. 1, English Section,
Part II, Poona: Vaidika Samsodhana Mandala, 1962, pp. 877-893 are the Sanskrit
texts and their English translations respectively.
-17-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
by means of the sdkamedha and calms the anger of Rudra by the tryambaka rite,
which forms part of the sdkamedha. For human beings death is unavoidable but
they seek to escape an untimely death. The mahdpitryajha, which also belongs
to the sdkamedha, helps one live for one's full life span. Thus, the people of an-
cient India expected from the Vedic rituals that they might live as peacefully as
possible within nature, which could be both mild and unruly' (Einoo 1986: 1066)
I assumed that the Vedic rituals were a reliable way for the people of ancient
India to fulfill their objectives, so eagerly desired. But Tantric rites too claim to
bring about the attainment of wishes. J. Torzbk, for example, analyzes the rites
described in the Siddhayogesvarimata and classifies the objectives of the rites as
siddhis in the following way:
1. sdttvika siddhis: well-being / being well-fed (pusti I dpydyana); expiation /
pacification (sdnti); [saving things] in case some disaster occurs (upasarge samut-
panne); conquering death (mrtyumjaya); eloquence / poetic talent (kavitva); the
ability to be infinitely small, big etc. (animddigundh); final release (moksa).
2. rdjasa siddhis: subjugating people to one's will (vasyd); attracting people
(esp. women, dkarsana); going to the underworld (pdtdlecaratvam); flying (khe-
caratvam); disappearing (antardhdnam); "pill-siddhi" (a pill, put in the mouth,
is said to make one invisible, gulikdsiddhi); and a siddhi with a magic wand and
a bowl (siddhakdsthakamandalau).
3. tdmasa siddhis, twelve kinds of black magic (abhicdras) listed in chapter
24: murder (mdrana), expelling someone (uccdtana), annihilation (jambhana),
paralysing (stambhana), benumbing (mohana), "nailing down" (kllana), taking
away someone's speech (vdcdpahdra), making someone dumb (mukatva), deaf
(bddhirya), blind (andhana), impotent (sandhlkarana), and changing one's form
(rupasya parivartanam) (Torzsok 2000: 138-139).
In the Siddhayogesvarimata, the objectives of the rites which J. Torzbk lists
as siddhis (or supernatural powers), especially the rdjasa and the tdmasa sid-
dhis, belong to the category of supernatural phenomena and seem to be consid-
erably different from the types of wish people expected to gain from the Vedic
rituals that still remained within the sphere of everyday life.
In this article I attempt to trace changes in the selection of objectives in Vedic
rituals, and in the selection of the siddhis in Tantric rites by examining some
Vedic and post-Vedic texts. First, I analyse the Rgvidhana, which prescribes a
great number of rites performed by magically using the hymns and verses of the
Rgveda, in order to discover what purposes and effects were expected of them.
I then examine the Samavidhanabrahmana, which likewise enjoins the magical
use of the sdmans. After that I compare the results obtained from the analysis
of these two vidhdna texts with a short description of kdmya rites given in the
-18-
From kamas to siddhis
Gobhilagrhyasutra, a Vedic domestic ritual text. Among the Tantric ritual texts I
have selected the Vinasikhatantra as an example of a Hindu Tantric text and the
Amoghapasakalparaja as a text of Buddhist Tantrism, and make an overview of
the tendency towards a development from obtaining desires (kamas) in the Vedic
texts to getting supernatural powers (siddhis) in the Tantric texts.
2 Analysis of the rites of the Rgvidhana
The Rgvidhana consists of four chapters. Rgvidh 1.1-78 4 forms the introductory
part; descriptions of rites using RV 1.1 and so on begin from Rgvidh 1.79. Most of
the rites are simple japas or recitations of certain hymns or verses of the RV, and
homas or offerings of butter in fire. From time to time we come across pujas or
the worship of deities peculiar to the post-Vedic ritual texts (Bhat 1987: 87-94).
The prescriptions of the rites are usually mingled with statements about their
effects and purposes:
tan japan prayato nityam istan kamant samasnute /1.84coV
medhakamo japen nityam juhuyac cajyam etaya /1.85cd/
"One who, being pure, always mutters these verses obtains the desires he wishes."
"One who desires intellect should murmur it or should offer butter with it."
Rgvidh 1.84cd and 1.85cd are statements concerning the effect of using RV 1.2—
3 and RV 1.18.6 respectively. In most cases one effect is assigned to one ritual
act, but sometimes one performance claims more than one result as the following
example shows:
sauparnani pavitrani siiktany ekadasabhyaset I vanchan putran pasun vittam su-
vargam ayur anandhatam /1.106/ "One who wishes sons, cattle, wealth, heaven,
longevity, and not being blind should repeat the eleven purifying sauparna hymns
(RVKh 1.2-12)."
In this case we can consider that six kinds of effects are mentioned. In this way
we are able to collect 413 statements about the effects of the rites from 652 verses
in four chapters of the Rgvidhana and classify them as follows:
1-1-0 to live a full life span (ayusya): 34 5
4 In this article I use Bhat, M.S., 1987, Vedic Tantrism: A Study of Rgvidhana of
Saunaka with Text and Translation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass as the text of the
Rgvidhana. In Bhat's text, the verses of each chapter are numbered differently
from the numbers of verses given in the text of Rudolf Meyer, 1877, Rgvidhanam,
Berolini: Typis A. W. Schadi. However, as Bhat also gives the numbers of sections
which almost correspond to those of Meyer's edition, it is not difficult to find the old
numberings of Meyer's edition.
5 The number given after : in each item refers to the number of occurrences of the
-19-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
To obtain a full life span (ayus): 11, to obtain long life (dlrgha ayus): 4, to
live long (jyog jwet): 1, to live for a hundred years: 3, no fear from the god of
death: 2 6 , not to become sick: 13
1-1-1 to obtain eyesight (caksus): 3
1-1-2 to conquer death: 6 7
1-2-0 to remedy disease (bhaisajya): 9
1-2-1 to remedy consumption (yaksman): 3
1-2-2 improvement of digestion: 3
1-2-3 to remedy poison: 3
1-2-4 to obtain a medicinal herb: 1
2-0 prosperity (paustika) or for various desires (kamya): 112
to obtain desires (kama): 20, to obtain wealth (sri): 10, to obtain well-being,
etc. (bhuti, rddhi, sukha): 6, to obtain one thousand (sahasra): 2, to obtain
possessions (vitta): 4, to obtain riches (dhana): 16, to steal riches by killing an
enemy: 2, to obtain other wealth (dravina, ratna): 2, to obtain gold: 4, to ob-
tain a house (grha), a dwelling place (nivesa): 2, to obtain clothes: 3, to obtain
food: 8, to obtain progeny: 6, to obtain a son: 9, to obtain a thousand followers
(anucara) or warriors (vira): 4, to obtain speech (vac): 4, to obtain intelligence
(medhd) or knowledge (jnana, vidyd): 7, to obtain fame (yasas, varcas): 4, to
become handsome (rupavat): 1, to obtain success/supernatural power (sid-
dhi): 6, 8 to obtain concentration of mind (samddhi), sacrifice (makha), truth
statement of effect.
6 Rgvidh 3.38d = Rgvidh 3.76d (yamaya saganayaiva) tadbhayam na sa vindati "One
(who offers to Yama and his retinue) does not have fear from them." See also 3-2-1
absence of fear (abhaya).
7 Rgvidh 1.108cd mumursur api ... sarvam ayur avapnuyat "Even one who is about
to die may obtain a full life span." Rgvidh 2.40b apamrtyum vyapohati "He expels
death." Rgvidh 1.130cd chittvd sarvan mrtyupasan jived ... "After cutting off all
nooses of death he may live." Rgvidh 1.1G1& purne mdsijayen mrtyum "After one
month he may conquer death." Rgvidh 3.13d ghoram mrtyubhayam jayet "He may
conquer a dreadful fear of death." Rgvidh 3.42c evam yukto jayen mrtyum "Thus
practicing he may conquer death." For mryumjaya, see Einoo 2005.
8 In the following four cases the word siddhi can be interpreted as success: Rgvidh
1.157a, b ... labhate ... siddhim anuttamdm 'he obtains unsurpassed success';
Rgvidh 2A3dparam siddhim avapnuyat 'he may reach the highest success'; Rgvidh
2.106d param siddhim niyacchati 'he secures the highest success'; Rgvidh 2.167d
arthasiddhih para bhavet 'there may be the highest accomplishment of object'.
Rgvidh 2.57c svadehe sidhyate jantuh 'a person attains perfection in his very
body (Bhat 1987: 324).' For a similar idea, see Amoghapasakalparaja 21a, 3 and
Manjusrimulakalpa 55 [691,3-61. On the other hand, Rgvidh 3.47cd-48 'He sees
the divine gandharvas, he sees siddhas and caranas. He hides himself from this
world. He becomes one who goes in the air. He sees from a distance, he listens from
a distance, like Paramesthin' clearly points to the supernatural powers.
-20-
From kamas to siddhis
(sattva): 3
2-1 rites for rain: 5
2-2 domestic rules: 3
Rules for taking food: 2, levirate marriage 1
2-3 rites for agriculture: 4
2-4 rites for pasturage: 11
2-5 grace or intervention of the gods: 9 9
3-1-0 peacefulness (svastyayana): 9
3-1-1 safety on a journey: 18
3-1-2 safety when one crosses a river: 4
3-2-0 pacification (santi): 12
Pacification of women, men and cows (nannaragosanti): 1, when a dove sits
down in one's house: 1, pacification of the house: 2, of the planets: 1, of a
horse: 1, of bad dreams: 6, to calm dissension among relatives (jnatibheda):
1, to calm down hatred: 1
3-2-1 absence from fear (abhaya): 4
3-2-2 for one who wishes purification (suddhikama), or for purification: 3
3-2-3 release from various evil conditions: 42
For one who is accused (abhisasta): 3, release from Varuna's noose: 2, one who
is bound (baddha): 2, release from falsehood (anrta): 1, release from bad luck
(alaksmi, asrl): 4, from misfortune (duhkha), from various evil conditions
such as amhas: 1, apad: 3, kalmasa: 1, kilbisa: 1, krcchra: l,papa: 9, rapas:
1, ripra: 3, other cases: 2 10 , from raksas: 7
3-3 atonement for one's sins (prayascitta): 19
9 1 assign Rgvidh 2.54, 64, 65, 78-79, 92cd-95, 179cd-180ab, 180cd-181ab, 3.5cd-6,
34-37, 4.130cd-131ab to the item 'grace or intervention of gods'. In Rgvidh 2.54d sa
tasya varado bhavati 'the deity becomes a boon-giver to him,' and Rgvidh 2.92cdya
icched varadam devim sriyam nityam kule sthitdm 'one who wishes that the boon-
giving goddess Sri will always stay in one's family' the word varada appears. Ac-
cording to Bbhtlingk-Roth's Sanskrit Worterbuch, it is only in TA 10.34 and SvetUp
4.11 that the word varada otherwise occurs. From this we can surmise the idea of
being given a boon by a god belongs to the latest period of Vedic literature.
10 Rgvidh 1.118cd-119ab rajakarye svayiithe va abhisasto 'py anekadha 11181 asakye
pratibhakarye bhaye pranantike 'pi va 'Either in royal service, or among a troop
of dogs, even when one has repeatedly been infamous, (when engaged) in a deed
of audacity which cannot be executed, or even in peril of life' (Gonda 1951: 28) is
classified as 'other cases . Rgvidh 2.121ab yasya nastam bhavet kin cid dravyam
gaur dvipadam dhanam 'When something like goods, a cow, a man or riches go lost
for one' is also grouped into this category, because it deals with the bad situation
that one loses something. The Rgvidh here uses RV 6.54 to find lost things and
AsvGS 3.7.9 prescribes a rite using the same sukta to find lost things, too. See also
KausS 37.4-6, 52.12-14 for rites for the same purpose.
-21-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
4 rites for women: 12
To get a maiden (kanya): 1, to get a husband: 1, marriage: 1, conception: 1,
to beget a son: 1, to abort a dead fetus: 1, to prevent a miscarriage: 2, for a
safe delivery: 1, to cause to sleep: 1, to expel another wife of the husband: 1,
to increase virility: 1
5-1 royal rites: 9
Royal consecration (rajabhiseka): 1, to obtain kingship (rajya, aisvarya): 5,
taking the bath of a king: 1, to make an amulet for a king: 1, pacification of
royal paraphernalia: 1
5-2 rites for the battle: 8
6 victory over a rival: 17
To win a dice game: 1, to win a dispute: 1, to defeat the enemy (satru, dvisant,
sapatna, ari, ripu): 15
7 sorcery (abhicara): 26
To make someone sick: 1, to burn: 1, to expel someone from the country: 1,
to cause dissension: 3, 11 to control someone through one's will: 9, 12 to kill: 6,
counter magic: 5 13
8-1 blessed condition after death/liberation: 21 14
The abhicaras mentioned hitherto are described in Rgvidh 2.48cd; 1.79-82; 2.49ab;
1.100, 102-203ab, 2.49cd.
Among the abhicaras of this kind, Rgvidh 3.84cd-87 and 3.108-109 aim at one's
kindred or friends. In Rgvidh 3.100cd-107 an effigy of boiled rice is made and this
sorcery is performed to attract women; it is noted that this rite should not be done
in relation to a married woman, a female ascetic (sadhvl) or a chaste woman (dhar-
mavrataslla). According to Rgvidh 2.48ab all things (sarvam) are brought under
one's control, Rgvidh 2.182cd-183ab claims to subdue the world (jagat) and the sor-
cery described in 3.95cd-96ab has a king or a country or a town as its victim. Rgvidh
3.79-84ab prescribes a rite in which an effigy made of clay is used and according
to the number of days of the performance, either a rich merchant or a ksatriya or
a king or a brahmin or an ascetic is brought under one's control. In 3.88-92ab an
effigy made of clay mixed either with ghee or sesame oil or mustard oil is used to
subdue a brahmin, a ksatriya, and a merchant respectively. According to Rgvidh
2.42, after one hundred thousand offerings of ashes into water, the sorcery (krtya)
itself appears from the water.
Rites to kill an enemy are prescribed in Rgvidh 1.105, 2.16-20, 47, 63, 176cd-177ab,
3.92cd-95ab. Among them, an effigy of the enemy is used in 2.16-20 and 3.92cd-
95ab. Also in the battle rite in Rgvidh 2.87cd-89ab, an effigy made of clay is used.
Examples of counter magic are found in 4.30-33, 36-37, 40-42, 115-116.
The item concerning a blessed condition after death/liberation is based on descrip-
tions in the Rgvidh 3.17cd-18ab, 1.106, 3.70cd, 1.107, 136-137, 2.44, 3.18cd-19ab
(this passage is grouped into two subcategories: to obtain the highest place and
to obtain immortality), 4.127cd-129ab, l.lllcd-112, 4.19cd-20ab, 1.158d-159a,
-22-
From kamas to siddhis
To reach the desired goal (ista gati): 1, to obtain heaven (svarga): 2, to ob-
tain the highest place (para dhaman, para sthana): 4, to obtain immortality
(amrtatva): 2, to obtain the same realm (salokata) with the moon: 1, to be
present with all the gods: 1, to go to the world of Indra: 1, to obtain intimate
union (sayojya) with Prajapati: 1, to go to the highest place of Visnu: 1, to
go to the world of Brahman: 3, to obtain brahmanirvana: 1, not to be born
again: 2, to obtain memory of previous lives (jatismara): 1
8-2 blessed condition of the ancestors: 3
The results of rites the performer undertakes are generally classified as follows:
he maintains a good condition and seeks for a better condition, but when a bad
condition happens, he tries to recover from it. Among the items given above, the
maintaining of a good condition corresponds to 3-1 peacefulness (svastyayana).
The seeking of a better condition is, generally speaking, item 2 prosperity
(paustika), and when the better condition is concerned with life, it is a matter
of item 1-1 to live a full life span (ayusya). Recovering from a bad condition is
3-2 pacification (santi), and if the bad condition is disease, item 1-2 remedy for
a disease deals with it, while in the case of a transgression of social rules, 3-3
atonement for one's sins (prayascitta) is measured against it. Item 6 victory over
a rival can be, broadly speaking, likened to recovering from a bad condition, the
rival being representative of the bad condition.
M. Bloomfield classifies the ritual hymns into nine classes: 1) Charms to
cure diseases and possession by demons (bhaisajyani), 2) Prayers for long life
and health (ayusyani), 3) Imprecations against demons, sorcerers, and ene-
mies (abhicarikani and krtyapratiharanani), 4) Charms pertaining to women
(strikarmani), 5) Charms to secure harmony, influence in the assembly, and
the like (sammanasyani, etc.), 6) Charms pertaining to royalty (rajakarmani),
7) Prayers and imprecations in the interest of Brahmans, 8) Charms to secure
prosperity and freedom from danger (paustikani), and 9) Charms in expiation
of sin and defilement (prayascittani) (Bloomfield 1899: 57). Taking Bloomfield's
classification into consideration, I add further item 4 rites for women, item 5
4.44cd-45ab, 3.137, 2.67, 3.2cd-5ab, 3.75. Brahmanirvana is mentioned as one of
the results of a very long rite for the worship of and meditation on Visnu Narayana
by using the Purusasukta (RV 10.90): 3.149cd munayah sarve brahmanirvanam
dpnuyuh 'all sages may reach the brahmanirvana' . There are two rites so that one
will not be born again: a short version in 2.186cd and a long one in 4.20cd-28,
the latter using the Ratrisukta (RV 10.127) which corresponds to Samavidh 3.8.1-5
(Gonda 1951: 103). The result of remembering previous lives is mentioned in Rgvidh
2.45cd, and Samavidh 3.7.1 also promises the same result. See also Rgvidh 3.36cd.
The next item 8-2 'blessed condition of the ancestors' is based on the descriptions in
Rgvidh 1.109, 3.8ab, 4.129cd-130ab.
-23-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
royal rites, and item 7 for sorcery (abhicdra). Item 8, the blessed condition after
death, is a new article I have introduced for the Rgvidhana.
3 Analysis of the rites of the Samavidhanabrahmana
The Samavidhanabrahmana 15 has three chapters. At first glance the contents
of the text seem to be arranged systematically Samavidh 1.1.1-7 describes the
creation of the world, 1.1.8-18 praises the Vedic melodies (samans), 1.2.1-12
prescribes three kinds of penances (krcchra) and 1.3-4 is dedicated to the study
of the samans (svadhyaya). Then in 1.5-8 various kinds of atonements for dif-
ferent sins are discussed, through to the end of the first chapter. The second
and third chapters are divided into sections introduced by the phrase 'and from
now' (athatah) and the contents are summarized, for example, 2.1.1 athatah
kamyanam II 2.1.3 ayusyany eva prathamam II "And from now on the rites
for special desires. At first rites for longevity (will be prescribed)." 16 In the de-
scription of the section on rites for longevity there are naturally prescribed many
rites for this purpose as well as similar rites 17 but we can also find other types of
rites there as well. 18 The situation is also the same with other sections dealing
with other kinds of rites.
Now follows an analysis of rites in the Samavidhanabrahmana; 19 the scheme
of analysis is the same as that used for the Rgvidhana.
1-1-0 to live a full life span (ayusya): 4
To live long: 2.1.10; 11, to live for a hundred years: 2.1.5; 2.2.1
1-1-2 to conquer death: 3
15 I use the following edition of the Samavidhanabrahmana: Sdmavidhdna Brdhmana
with Veddrthaprakdsa of Sayana and Paddrthamdtravivrti of Bharatasvamin, crit-
ically edited by Dr. B. R. Sharma, Tirupati: Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, 1964.
16 See further Samavidh 2.6.1 athatah saubhagyanam (on the rites for nuptial hap-
piness), 2.6.17 athdto yasasydnam (on the rites for fame), 2.7.1 athdto brah-
mavarcasydndm (on the rites for holy luster), 2.8.1 athatah putriydndm (on the rites
for obtaining sons), 3.1.1 athdto dhanydndm (on the rites for becoming wealthy),
3.3.6 athdto vdstusamanam (on the pacification of the dwelling place), 3.4.1 athdto
drstadarsandndm (on the rites to see invisible things).
17 For example, Samavidh 2.1.5 and 2.2.1 rites to live for one hundred years, 2.1.10,
11 rites to live long, 2.4.9 a rite to ward off old age and death, 2.3.7, 8, 10, 11 rites
not to die accidentally.
18 For example, Samavidh 2.1.7 an atonement for when one receives too much, 2.4.8
blessings when going to sleep and when getting up, 2.5.1-4, 6-7 rites for the subju-
gation of various beings, 2.5.5 a rite for killing one's enemy.
19 As the number of cases in this text is much less in comparison with those in the
Rgvidhana, the place in the text is given for each case. Some items mentioned in
the analysis of the Rgvidh are skipped due to the lack of passages dealing with
them.
-24-
From kamas to siddhis
Not to die of thirst: 2.3.7, not to die in the water: 2.3.8, to expel decrepitude
and death: 2.4.9
1-2-0 remedy for disease (bhaisajya): 3
When one becomes ill: 2.2.3, when a part of the body aches: 2.3.1; 2
1-2-1 remedy for consumption (yaksman): 1 (2.3.9)
1-2-3 remedy for poison: 2 (2.3.10; 11)
2-0 prosperity (paustika) or for various desires (kamya): 47
To obtain wealth (sn): 3.1.3; 4; 3.2.6, to obtain a thousand (sahasra): 3.1.10;
11; 13; 3.2.1, to become wealthy (dhanya): 3.1.2, to obtain food: 2.3.5; 6, to
obtain gold: 3.1.8; 3.3.3, to obtain gold or silver: 3.1.12, to obtain a village:
3.2.4, to obtain a son who is handsome and long-lived: 2.8.2; 3; 4; 5, to obtain
a hundred retinues: 2.8.6, to obtain fame: 2.6.16; 18, to obtain glory of the
brahmin: 2.7.1; 3, to obtain trust: 2.7.2, to speak of what has been heard
(srutanigadin): 2.7.4-11, to be good at talking (kathdsu sreyas): 2.7.12, to
speak against the king: 2.7.13, 20 to become fortunate: 2.6.2-5, to be liked by
all: 2.6.6, to obtain divine prosperity (daiva posa): 3.3.4, to obtain prosperity
of the asuras (dsura posa): 3.3.5, to obtain all human desires (manusa kdma):
3.9.3, to obtain all divine desires (daiva kdma): 3.9.4, to obtain the position
of the lord of the three worlds: 3.9.5, a rite in which, by each saman of a
set of eight samans, one obtains gold, corn, cattle, son, village, fame, glory
of the brahmin, and heaven respectively: 3.2.5, a rite in which according to
the depth of water in which one sinks to sing a saman, one obtains wealth
(laksmi), corn, cattle, son, village, and a thousand respectively: 3.2. 7-12. 21
Supernatural powers (siddhi)
To see what is hidden: 3.4.2-5, divination of success (siddhi): 3.4.6; 7; 9,
divination of a good crop: 3.4.8, divination of a victory: 3.4.10, divination of
longevity: 3.4.11, to see the ancestors: 3.7.4, to see gandharvas and apsaras:
3.7.5, to see the gods: 3.7.6, to find a hidden treasure (nidhi): 3.7.7-8, to see
demons (bhuta) and receive money from them: 3.7.9, to walk in the air: 3.9.1,
to move as swift as thought: 3.9.2
2-3 rites for agriculture: 2: to obtain crops: 3.1.9, 3.2.3
20 We find similar results in the Hemasadhanapatala: Manjusrimulakalpa 55
[697.10-11] rajakule cottaravadi bhavati 'and he becomes one who defends himself
in the royal house,' [690.16-17] rajakulesuttaravadi bhavati. See further [679.13-
15], [695.2-3], [690.17-18], [690.15-16],'[680.11-14], [695.2-3], [699.14], [707.25-
26], [710.8-9], [719.15-16].
21 We can find specifications about how deep one sinks in water: for example in
GobhGS 4.5.26, AVPS 36.26.1-3, Manjusrimulakalpa 55 [672.7-10], [672.22-24],
[673.19-21], [678.24-26], [691.8-9], Amoghapasakalparaja 44b, 1-2 [59.17-23].
-25-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
2-4 rites for pasturage: 3: to obtain cows: 3.2.2; 3.3.1, to obtain a number of
cattle: 3.3.2
3-1-0 peacefulness (svastyayana): blessings at the time of sleeping and waking:
2.4.8
3-1-1 safety on a journey: 2.4.1-7
3-2-0 pacification (santi): 2
Pacification of the house: 3.3.6-7, pacification of omens: 3.5.5 22
3-2-1 absence of fear (abhaya): 2
To avert fear of snakes: 2.3.3, to avert fears from weapons: 2.3.4
3-2-2 purification: to become purified (puta): 2.1.6
3-2-3 release from various evil conditions: 5
From bad luck (alaksmi): 3.1.5; 6; 7, from obstruction (sambadha): 2.1.9,
from raksas: 2.2.2
4 rites for women: 2
Taking a bath before sexual intercourse: 2.6.12, to wed one's daughter:
2.6.14-15
5-1 royal rites: royal consecration (rajabhiseka): 3.5.1-4
5-2 rites for the battle: 3.6.1-7; 8; 9; 11
7 sorcery (abhicara):
To burn: 3.7.2, to allure a woman: 2.6.7; 11, to subdue a woman: 2.6.8; 9; 10,
to attract courtesans (vesastha) and female ascetics (pravrajika): 2.6.13, to
win over either a brahmin or a ksatriya or a vaisya or a sudra: 2.5.1-4, to win
over various beings according to a period of the performance of the rite (for
one night: the family, for two nights: retinues of the king, for three nights:
the king, for four nights: a village, for five nights: a town, for six nights: a
country, for seven nights: asuras and raksas, for eight nights: the ancestors
and pisacas, for nine nights: yaksas, for ten nights: gandharvas and apsaras,
for a half month: Vaisravana, for a month: Indra, for four months: Prajapati,
for a year: the whole world): 2.5.2, to subdue pisacas: 3.7 .3, jambhakas grant
all desires: 3.7.10, to kill: 3.6.10; 12; 13
counter-sorcery: 3.5.6; 7; 8
22 In Samavidh 1.5-8 various kinds of atonements for different sins are discussed and
at the end of the passages the pacifications of some omens are described (Gampert
1939: 5): 1.8.7: bad dreams, 1.8.8; 12: some indefinite omens, 1.8.9: fire burning,
1.8.10: damage caused by mice, 1.8.11: when a seat (kurca) is broken, 1.8.13-15
describes pacifications of various disasters (abhivata) among men or cows or horses.
-26-
From kamas to siddhis
8-1 blessed condition after death/liberation
To go to the world of Brahma: 2.1.8; not to be born again: 3.8.1-5, to obtain
the memory of previous lives (jatismara): 3.7.1
When we compare the items of the Rgvidhana and the Samavidhana, item 2-0
'prosperity (paustika) or various desires (kamya)' is the most numerous in the
Rgvidhana. As regards the siddhis or supernatural powers, the Rgvidhana gives
only one example, namely Rgvidh 3.47cd-48, which I refer to in note 8. Pas-
sages dealing with the supernatural powers in the Samavidhana are collected at
the end of item 2-0, where the examples amount to fourteen in number. Rites
to obtain siddhis in the Samavidhana are therefore much greater in number
than in the Rgvidhana. The same thing can be said about the rites for sorcery
that comprise item number 7. I have listed 26 rites for the Rgvidhana, but only
17 for the Samavidhana. But in terms of percentage, those in the Rgvidhana
amount to only 6.3 percent, while those in the Samavidhana amount to 17 per-
cent. Item number 2-5 'grace or intervention of the gods' does not appear in the
Samavidhana, while item number 3-2-3 'release from various evil conditions' and
item number 8-1 'blessed condition after death' clearly show a decrease in that
text. From this we can say that the Samavidhana shows more interest in things
supernatural and magical while at the same time paying sufficient attention to
mundane matters.
4 Analysis of the rites of the Gobhilagrhyasutra (4.5-9) 23
Now I turn to an analysis of the Gobhilagrhyasutra (4.5-9), which belongs to
the tradition of the Samaveda. The Gobhilagrhyasutra, book 4, chapters 5 to
9 provides a comparatively systematic description of rites performed for the ob-
tainment of different desires. As the opening sutra GobhGS 4.5.1 suggests that
the rites which follow are clearly defined as kamya (kamyesu ata urdhvam 'in
the rites for the obtainment of definite desires, which will be described from now
on'). The result of the analysis is as follows.
1-1-0 to live a full life span (ayusya): for one who desires a full life span: 4.8.11-
13
1-1-2 to conquer death: to avoid an undesirable death: 4.6.1
23 The Khadiragrhyasutra (4.1.1-4.4.4) describes corresponding rites to fulfill var-
ious desires, but the analysis is based mainly on the description of the
Gobhilagrhyasutra. As GobhGS 4.7 is a detailed description of the construction
of a house, this chapter is left out of consideration.
-27-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
1-2-0 remedy for disease (bhaisajya): 24
To make clean the place where there are worms (krimi): 25 4.9.18
1-2-3 remedy for poison: for one who has been bitten by a venomous animal: 26
4.9.15
2-0 prosperity (paustika) or for various desires (kamya):
For one who desires enjoyment (bhogakama): 4.5.28, for one who desires to
obtain a hundred cart-loads or a thousand cart-loads: 4.6.13; 4.9.11, for one
who desires that his means of livelihood may not be exhausted: 4.8.19; 4.9.11,
offering of a part of the articles of trade (panyahoma): 27 4.8.20-22, to obtain
property on the earth (parthiva): 28 4.5.21-26, to obtain a village: 4.8.14-18,
for one who desires sons and cattle: 4.5.15-16, for one who desires compan-
ions (sahayakama): 4.8.23-25, for one who desires the glory of a brahmin:
4.5.14, for one who desires fame: 4.6.10; 4.8.23-25, to obtain the favor of a
person: 4.5.18-20; 4.8.8-10
2-4 rites for pasturage: 29
For one who desires cattle: 4.5.15-16; 4.9.6; 12; 13, for one who desires safety
of cattle: 4.5.17; 29; 30, against worms of cattle: 4.9.19-20, when the cow-
stable is burnt: 4.9.7 30
3-1-0 peacefulness (svastyayana): 31
A baliharana is performed at the end of the sravana and agrahayani 32 at a
cross-road to the northeast of the village for the sake of svastyayana: 4.8.1-7,
for the svastyayana of the snataka: 4.9.16-17
25 Besides KhadGS 4.4.3-4, KausS 27.14-20 and KausS 29.20-26 describe rites to
cure worms (Bloomfield 1899: 61).
26 p or r it es t cur e snakebite and similar accidents, see KhadGS 4.4.1, and KausS
29.1-14, 29.28-29, 31.26, 32.5-7, 32.20-25. SankhSS 16.13.3-4 is counted in this
group (Zysk 1992: 105).
27 See also KhadGS 4.3.7. ApGS 8.23.5; HirGS 1.4.14.8-15.1; KausS 41.8-9; 50.12-
16; 59.6 describe rites to pray for success in business. AsvGS 3.7.8; GobhGS 4.5.33;
ApGS 3.9.2; KausS 42.1-5; KausS 50.12-16 are rites for success of a journey for
business.
28 Bhattanarayana, a commentator, comments on GobhGS 4.5.22 as follows:
prthivyartham kriyata iti parthivam gramaksetradilabhartham 'In that it is per-
formed for the sake of the earth it is called parthiva, namely in order to obtain a
village, field and so on.'
30 GobhGS 4.9.6-7 gosthe pasukamah 16/ viduyamane civaram 111%. One who desires
cattle (performs it) in the cow-stable. 7. If (the cow-stable) is damaged by fire, (he
should offer) a monk's robe.' For the interpretation of this rite, see Knauer 1884:
208 and Oldenberg 1892: 127.
32 GobhGS 3.7.1-23 and GobhGS 3.9.1-21 describe the sravana and agrahayani re-
spectively.
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From kamas to siddhis
3-1-1 safety on a journey: 33 4.5.31; 32; 4.9.8-10
3-2-1 absence of fear (abhaya): 34 from serious diseases and sorcery: 4.6.2
3-2-3 release from various evil conditions: to expel misfortune (alaksmT): 35
4.6.3-9
5-1 royal rites: for one who desires the position of the lord of the people (puru-
sddhipatyakdma): 4.9.1-5
7 sorcery (abhicara): for one who desires killing (vadhakama): 4.8.11-13
As the opening sutra suggests, the rites described here are kdmya; there-
fore, among the items of the Gobhilagrhyasutra item number 2-0 'prosperity
(paustika) or for various desires (kamya)' is the most numerous. Desires
concerning fields, villages, sons and cattle, the prestige of a brahmin and fame
are regarded as the traditional topics of the Vedic kamyestis. A rite to obtain
the favor of a person can be counted as an Atharvavedic interest in securing
harmony (sammanasya) (Bloomfield 1899: 72-73). The rite of offering a part
of the articles of trade for the sake of success in business is similar to rites in
other Grhyasutras, as pointed out in note 27. It is remarkable that rites for long
life and to remedy disease, which appeared in great numbers in the Rgvidhana
can hardly be found in the Gobhilagrhyasutra. The reason that the number of
rites for long life is so low may be due to the fact that many of the rites of the
Grhyasutras, especially those performed at the different stages of life, such as
the rite of a new-born child, have as their very important aim the prayer for the
long life of a growing child. The Grhyasutras indeed have many occasions to
pray for the long life of a person, so it was not necessary to collect rites for this
purpose in particular (Bloomfield 1899: 64).
Rites to remedy disease are collectively described in the Kausikasutra 25.1-
32.27 and it seems as if medical rites were the monopoly of the Atharvavedic
tradition. Only a limited number of rites for remedies were treated in other
Grhyasutras proper (see note 24). It may be natural therefore that the number of
such rites in the Gobhilagrhyasutra should be very few. Even the Rgvidhana and
the Samavidhanabrahmana describe a few agricultural rites, so it is remarkable
that the Gobhilagrhyasutra does not mention any at all here, but treats them
in another place, namely in GobhGS 4.4.27-34. The Gobhilagrhyasutra, on the
other hand, enjoins some rites for pasturage or cattle breeding in the collection
of kdmya rites, but, as in the case of agricultural rites, this Grhyasutra also pre-
scribes rites for pasturage in another context, namely, in GobhGS 3.6.1-15. The
svastyayana in general, and especially safety on a journey, were matters of con-
cern from Vedic times. In item number 3-2-1, namely absence of fear, I mention
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
absence of fear from serious diseases and sorcery. Absence of fear from serious
diseases can be grouped into the item ayusya and the latter can be classified un-
der "sorcery", because it is a kind of a counter magic. There are also some hymns
and rites in the Vedic texts regarding absence from fear (see note 34), thus this
item is again traditionally Vedic. As for item number 3-2-3, a rite to expel misfor-
tune, I could find only one example in a sister sutra, Khadiragrhyasutra 4.1.20-
21, but it seems that during the marriage ceremony, a certain rite was performed
to expel alaksmT from the bride, as I mention in note 35.
I would thus like to maintain that the kdmya rites of the Gobhilagrhyasutra,
a Vedic text, aim at attaining the various desires well-known in the Vedic texts.
The items of the Rgvidhana vary widely but most can be assumed to belong to
the traditional objectives of desires. Among the items in the Rgvidhana, the fol-
lowing may indicate a new tendency. As I mentioned in note 9 concerning item
number 2-5, namely grace or intervention of the gods, the gods become varada or
boon-givers. As the examples given in note 12 on item 7 sorcery show, the various
rites to control someone are almost the same as rites of subjugation (vaslkarana)
that appear in the tantric six acts (satkarmani). In notes 12 and 13, 1 referred to
several cases in which an effigy is used in the rite of sorcery. Even though it has
already been pointed out that the use of an effigy in a magical act was already
known in the Atharvaveda (Gonda 1980: 255), and the Kausikasutra gives sev-
eral cases of it (see KausS 35.28, 36.14, 47.54), the usage of the effigy in sorcery
tends to be more popular in tantric magic; according to Bbhtlingk and Roth's
Sanskrit Worterbuch the word jdtismara or remembering of one's former life ap-
pears from the Mahabharata onward. There is only one case in the Rgvidhana
(see note 14), but this may represent a new tendency.
The Samavidhanabrahmana also generally gives the traditional desires, but
the following indicate new tendencies. Mentioned among the various desires
is divine prosperity (daiva posa), prosperity of the asuras and divine desires
(daiva kdma), as is obtaining the position of lord of the three worlds. Most no-
table though are the statements enumerated under the headings of supernatural
power: seeing what is hidden seems to be peculiar to the Samavidhana. I have
mentioned several kinds of divination. Divination itself was already known in
the Vedic texts (Thite 1978) and the examples given there are not something
new, but the ensuing examples of siddhi, namely to see ancestors, gandharvas
and apsaras, gods, demons and hidden treasure (nidhi) have so far been found
in the broadest sense among Vedic texts only in the Samavidhanabrahmana (see
item 2.0), Rgvidhana (see note 8) and Atharvavedaparisista. Rites of sorcery are
mentioned in the Samavidhanabrahmana (item number seven, sorcery) and this
too is an indication of the new tendency. As I have mentioned in note 12, the
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From kamas to siddhis
targets of subjugation appearing in the Rgvidhana are at most king and coun-
try, but in the Samavidhanabrahmana, supernatural beings such as demons and
gods are brought under the control of the practitioner.
The Atharvavedaparisista, chapter 35 asurikalpa (Magoun 1899) and chap-
ter 36 ucchusmakalpa (Bisschop, P. and A. Griffiths 2007), describe a number
of rites of subjugation and Atharvavedaparisista 36.2.9 claims to subjugate even
the Isvara. According to AVPS 36.25.1-4, an excellent woman or a woman grant-
ing desires (varastri) appears as the result of the rite and grants whatever the
performer desires. Thus, in texts complementary to the Grhyasutras such as
the Rgvidhana, Samavidhana and Atharvavedaparisista we can find many new
types of the rites clearly exhibiting magical elements, and those rites are pre-
sumed to link with tantric rites.
5 Analysis of the Vinasikhatantra (151-224 and 264-300)
The Vinasikhatantra 36 is one of the early Saivatantras from the north of India
(Goudriaan 1985: 4). In this text a deity called Tumburu and his four saktis or
sisters, Jaya, Vijaya, Ajita and Aparajita, play a central role. 37 Vinasikhatantra
151-136ab teaches their bijamantras 38 and Vinasikhatantra 151-224 and 264-
300 prescribes a variety of mainly magical rites, whose analysis follows:
1-2-0 remedy for disease (bhaisajya): 183-184ab; 184cd
2-0 prosperity (paustika) or for various desires (kamya):
What one uses becomes inexhaustible: 185, 39 to be liked by all: 186, 40 for
one who desires welfare (snkama): 187-188ab, for one who desires all (sar-
vakama): 41 188cd-1901b; 218-224ab; 289cd-291, an immediate elevation of
36 I use the following text: T. Goudriaan, The Vinasikhatantra, a Saiva Tantra of the
Left Current, edited with an Introduction and Translation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsi-
dass, 1985.
37 For Tumburu and his four sisters, see Goudriaan 1973 and Goudriaan 1985: 18-30,
47-48. For the fact that Tumburu was known in South East Asia, see Goudriaan
1985: 24 and Sanderson 2001: 8 and for the fact that he was also known in Chinese
Esoteric Buddhism, see Sanderson 2001: 8.
38 For their different bijamantas, see Goudriaan 1973: 50.
39 We find similar rites in GobhGS 4.8.19 and 4.9.14 for one who desires that his means
of livelihood may not be exhausted.
40 A similar rite is found in Samavidh 2.6.6. AV 19.62.1 conveys a similar idea.
This kind of rite seemed to be very popular among the Buddhists. See, for ex-
ample, Amoghapasakalparaja 33a,l and the following places in the Hemasadhana:
Manjusrimulakalpa 55 [714.26-271; [671.28]; [673.14-15]; [686.25-28]; [698.18-
19]; [707.4]; [714.24-26]; [716.2]; [716.5-6].
41 Many passages among the twenty passages listed at the beginning of item 2-0 of
the Rgvidhana, namely 'to obtain desires (kama)' are for one who desires all (sar-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
one's position (sadyotkarsana): 42 162
3-2-0 pacification (santi): santi and pusti are reached: 181-182
4 rites for women:
To make someone impotent: 277-278, to increase virility: 282-283ab
7 sorcery
To attract a woman: 151-154; 194-196, to attract someone: 201cd-206,
266cd-268ab, to revive a dead person who grants a desire: 190cd-193, 43
how to prepare a magic ointment (ahjana) to make someone as charming
as the god of love: 279-281, 44 to bring someone under control {vasikarana):
268cd-269; 274cd-276; 283cd-286; 286cd-289ab, vasikarana of the enemy:
vakama) and in order to obtain all desires: Rgvidh 1.144; 124ab; 160cd-161ab; 2.43;
2.44; 2.45ab; 2.165-166; 2.178cd-179ab; 3.46-48; 3.138-142; 4.7cd; 4.29. KausS
59.19-20 already describes a rite for a sarvakdma.
Goudriaan 1985: 39 finds the meaning of utkarsana to be unclear, but on p. 114
he translates it 'total uprooting [of the enemy]' and considers it to be a synonym
for uccatana. Vinasikh 162 reads as follows: grhitvd tu mahdmdmsam dadhi-
madhvdjyasamyutam I dhutydstasahasrena sadyotkarsanam uttamam II 'Having
collected human flesh together with sour milk, honey and clarified butter, an imme-
diate elevation of one's position is obtained by offering them a thousand and eight
times.' A rite called uccatana is known in the Vinasikhatantra, because it uses the
word in Vinasikh 165a. The association of utkarsana with uccatana may have been
caused by the use of human flesh (mahdmdmsa); a rite which uses human flesh
must be of a cruel character. There are another two cases in the Vinasikhatantra
in which human flesh is used. In Vinasikh 189cd-190ab there is a rite for one who
desires all, in which human flesh (naramdmsa) and the flesh of goats are offered
one hundred thousand times. Vinasikh 190cd-193 describes a magical rite to re-
vive a dead person who then grants one of the performer's desires. As these two
other cases involving the use of human flesh belong to the rite to fulfill desires, it is
not unlikely that utkarsana can mean the elevation of one's position.
As mentioned in note 42 a dead person revives and grants one of the practitioner's
desires. There are similar rites in other texts. In Rgvidh 2.42, when one offers
ashes one hundred thousand times in water, the personified sorcery (krtyd) appears
from the water. According to Samavidh 3.6.12-13, when mustard oil is offered a
thousand times at a crossroad on the fourteenth night of the waning half month, a
person having a sword in his hand appears and when he is ordered to kill someone,
he does so. In AVPS 36.25.1-4 an excellent woman or a woman granting desires
(varastri) appears and says that she will fulfill whatever the performer desires. See
Goudriaan 1978: 294-298, for similar rites in the later Tantric texts.
For the magical ointment applied to the eyes (anjana or anjana), see Gonda 1980:
150-152 and Goudriaan 1978: 317-318. Goudriaan 1978: 317 refers to AVPS 35.2.2,
but the following 35.2.2cd-3ab and 35.2.3cd-4ab teach the preparation of two
kinds of anjana. By applying the first, everybody becomes one's servant (kimkara)
while the second is called the origin of good fortune of all beings (sarvabhutdndm
saubhdgyasya tu kdranam). Samavidh 2.6.5 teaches a sdman for the anjana to be-
come happy.
-32-
From kamas to siddhis
168-169; 170, of the king: 174-177, of the king or the queen: 159-161, the
three worlds (trailokya): 45 163-164, 270-274ab, to cause hatred (vidvesana):
171-173; 197-199ab; 216cd-217, to uproot the enemy (uccatana): 165-167,
to kill the enemy (marana): 155-158; 178-180; 207-216ab
In the Vinasikhatantra the variety of rites is extremely limited. Most of them
are grouped into the rite of sorcery, and some other rites seemingly belong to the
fantastic imagination such as those prescribed in verses 185 and 186 (see item 2-
0). The situation is rather similar to the rdjasa and the tdmasa siddhis described
in the Siddhayogesvarimata mentioned above (p. 18).
6 Analysis of the Amoghapasakalparaja (43b.6-44a.7) 46
The Amoghapasakalparaja 43b.6-44a.7 makes up an independent chapter and
deals with homa rituals (Kimura 2005). The contents of this short chapter are
analysed as follows:
2-0 prosperity (paustika) or for various desires (kamya):
To obtain the highest prosperity: 44b,3-4 [60.2-4], to obtain one hundred
dinaras: 44a.2-3 [58.6-10]; 44b. 1 [59.13-15], 47 to attract ayaksini who gives
45 Goudriaan 1978: 299-300 refers to "attraction of the threefold inhabited world"
(trailokyakarsana) and Buhnemann 2000: 28-29 mentions a cakra which deludes
the threefold world (trailokyamohanacakra).
46 Some parts of the Amoghapasakalparaja have been published in the form of tran-
scribed texts, as follows: T. Kimura, N. Otsuka, T. Sugiki eds., 1998, "Tran-
scribed Sanskrit Text of the Amoghapasakalparaja, Part I," Annual of the Insti-
tute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho University, No. 20, pp. 304—
251; Y. Ito, R. Kouda, Y. Matsunami eds., 1999, "Transcribed Sanskrit Text of the
Amoghapasakalparaja, Part II," Annual of the Institute for Comprehensive Studies
of Buddhism, Taisho University, No. 21, pp. 154-107; A. Suzuki, N. Otsuka, H.
Kimura eds., 2000, "Transcribed Sanskrit Text of the Amoghapasakalparaja, Part
III," Annual of the Institute for Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho Uni-
versity, No. 22, pp. 372-309; Y Ito, H. Yaita, S. Maeda eds., 2001, "Transcribed
Sanskrit Text of the Amoghapasakalparaja, Part IV," Annual of the Institute for
Comprehensive Studies of Buddhism, Taisho University, No. 23, pp. 406-331. In the
course of the analysis of the contents of Amoghapasakalparaja 43b.6-44a.7 I some-
times refer to the Hemasadhanapatala, the last chapter of the Manjusrimulakalpa,
pp. 668-722 where a great number of esoteric rites are briefly described. For the
Manjusrimulakalpa I use the following text: The Aryamanjusrimulakalpa , ed. by
T Ganapati Sastri, 4 parts, Trivandrum, 1925 (reprint, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publica-
tions, 1989).
47 AVPS 36.26.1-3 prescribes a rite to obtain one hundred dinaras and one hundred
cows. In the Amoghapasakalparaja I can find only one rite to obtain one thousand
dinaras (Amoghapasa 30a. 7). In the Hemasadhana in the Manjusrimulakalpa it
seems that the obtainment of various amounts of dinaras is a highly favorite pur-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
five thousand rupakas: 44a.3-4 [58.12-16], 48 to obtain one thousand gold:
44b.l [59.15-17], 49 to obtain a great amount of treasure (ratna) from a mirac-
ulous girl who appears from a river: 44b. 1-2 [59. 17-23], 50 to obtain one thou-
sand villages: 44a.2 [58.5-6], 51 to obtain supernatural powers (siddhi), to find
hidden treasure (nidhana): 44a.6-7 [58.26-59,4], 52 the magical practice of a
pose. Thirteen rites for obtaining one hundred dinaras are taught in Manjusri
55 [671.11-12], [[673.2-3], [678.4-5], [684.23-24], [688.2-3], [688.26-27], [688.27-
689.1], [689.1-2], [706.28-707.2], [702.2-4], [708.23-24], [711.11-12], and [712.28-
29]. Various amounts of dinaras can be obtained: one dinara in 55 [674.21-22]
and [679.3-7]; four dinaras in [695.13]; five dinaras in [671.12-13] and [711.9-11];
seven dinaras in [707.8-12], twenty-five dinaras in [673.1-2], more than one hun-
dred dinaras in [671.15-16] and [688.22-26]; three hundred dinara sin [671.14-15];
five hundred dinaras in [678.13-15], [694.17-19], [700.3-5] and [711.5-9]; one thou-
sand dinaras in [671.24-26], [675.2-4], [676.24-25], [676.28-277.2], [684.25-26],
[685.2-3], [685.6-7], [685.7], [688.9-11], [688.12-20], [709.29-710.2], [711.12-14],
[712.14], [718.5-6] and [718.20-21]; five thousand dinaras in [677.2-4] and [694.17-
19]; twelve thousand dinaras in [706.24-27]; one hundred thousand dinaras in
[671.11], [672.26-27], [685.5] and [707.6-8].
48 The Hemasadhana again hands down several rites to obtain many rupakas:
[673.25-27], [678.27-679.2]: one hundred rupakas; [677.4-5], [678.16-19], [688.4-
6]: one thousand rupakas; [692.8-10]: seven thousand rupakas. As a yaksini ap-
pears in this rite, it can be classified as a rite for attraction (akarsana).
49 A rite to obtain one thousand gold is found in AVPS 35.2.6ab. The Hemasadhana
teaches similar rites in the following places: [671.22-23], [672.7-10], [672.15-16],
[684.15-16], [684.18-19], [684.26], etc. Amoghapasa 44b,l [59.16-17] says that af-
ter obtaining gold one should worship the three treasures, distribute some part of
it, and take the rest of it. In Amoghapasa 44a, 6-7 [58.26-59.4] a rite to obtain hid-
den treasure is prescribed and at the end of the rite it enjoins that one should give
the proper share to the tree treasures and take the rest of it. See also Amoghapasa
44b. 2 [59.22-23]. In the Hemasadhana a similar idea is expressed by the word
ratratrayopayojya in [676.6-7], [678.7-8], [678.15], [678.19], [677.28].
50 As in this case a miraculous girl appears from a river, we can classify it as akarsana.
Incidentally, this rite is performed on the bank of a river which flows down to the sea
(samudragamini nadi). According to the rite in Amoghapasa 44a. 4-6 [58.16-26] a
yaksini appears and becomes the female servant of the practitioner, and this rite too
is performed on the bank of a river running to the sea. The Hemasadhana describes
several rites which are to be performed at the same place: [669.15], [672.8], [672.10],
[672.22], [674.7], [674.16], [677.8], [678.6], [683.18], [686.13].
51 I do not know of any other rites to obtain as many as one thousand villages. In many
cases the village is singular and one obtains one village. The villages that can be ob-
tained by a rite in Samavidh 3.2.5 are plural but the number is not expressed. When
the number of the villages is expressed, it is rather moderate; KausS 22.7 describes
a rite to obtain seven villages. According to GobhGS 4.8.15-18 one gets seven vil-
lages, if one succeeds, but one can get at least three villages. The Hemasadhana
also teaches several rites to obtain various numbers of villages: three villages in
[716.18], five villages in [677.9-11], [712.14-15], and [718.13-14], eight villages in
[696.3], ten villages in [672.11-13], and twelve villages in [704.25-27]. For the idea
in the Vedic texts to wish to obtain a village, see Kulke 1991.
52 As Goudriaan 1978: 307 has already mentioned, Samavidh 3.7.7 and 8 and AVPS
35.2.4 enjoin similar rites. As regards the Manjusrimulakalpa, T Goudriaan says
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From kamas to siddhis
cave (bilasadhana): 44b.5 [60.13], to open all doors of a cave: 44b.5 [60.14],
to enter a forest and to attract all goods (dravya) and medical herbs: 44b. 5-6
[60.15-17] 53
2-1 rite for rain: 44b.4 [60.6-8] 54
3-2-0 pacification (santi):
Protection of the house (grharaksa): 55 43b.7-44a.l [57.15-26], great pacifi-
cation (mahasanti): 44a.l-2 [57.26-58.1]; 44b,3 [60.1-2], to stop excessive
that in this text this kind of rite appears repeatedly and he refers, for example, to
Vol. II, p. 299 and Vol. Ill, p. 671. The latter example may be Hemasadh [671.23-
24]. The Hemasadhana indeed prescribes a number of rites to find hidden treasure:
[672.20-22], [674.6-8], [677.25-29], [683.1-7], [683.16-18], [683.18-19], [684.8-10],
[684.17-18], [686.10-11], [689.11-13], [702.28-703.1], [710.2-3], [718.10-12].
53 When the performer enters a forest, all goods (dravya) and medicinal herbs stand
before him (sarvadravyausadhaya svarupena tisthanti). Amoghapasa 22b. 4 and
28b. 3 describe two rites which bring about almost the same results. In the long
chapter of Amoghapasa 21b.5-23a.2 there is described a magical practice concern-
ing the prescription of a forest (vanavidhisadhana), through the performance of
which the practitioner opens the door of a forest and goes to the world of the nagas.
According to Hemasadh [695.5-8] entering a cave (bilapravesa) and entering a for-
est (vanapravesa) are referred to as the results of the recitation of a certain mantra.
In Rajatarangim 3.465-470 King Ranaditya obtained a mantra called Hatakesvara
and entered a cave where he enjoyed the love of the daitya women (Stein 1900:
113-114).
54 Proper rainfall was of the greatest concern for people from the time of the Veda
(Rau 1957: 90-92). RV 10.98 is a hymn praying to Brhaspati for rain for the sake of
King Santanu. RV 7.103 , known as the frog-hymn, is also a hymn to pray for rain
(Kajihara 2002: 29). AV 4.15, 6.22, and 7.18 also serve the same purpose (Bloom-
field 1899: 80). For a ritual to pray for rain among the kamyesti, see Caland 1908:
13, 38, 129-134. PB 6.10.15-18 is a kamyasoma for obtaining rainfall. In the
Brahmana literature we find sporadic statements that certain ritual actions are
devices to cause to rain or to prevent rain falling, for example, in KS 26.6 [128.19],
27.1 [138.13-15], MS 3.9.4 [118.14-16], 4.5.5 [71.6-9], 4.6.9 [92.9-11], TS 2.1.7.3-4,
6.3.4.6, 6.4.5.5-6, SB 13.1.9.10, JB 1.117 [50.14-21], 1.184 [76.30] and so on. These
are surely only a small portion of such statements. For rites for rain described in
the Grhyasutras and auxiliary texts, see Gonda 1980: 44, 398-399. We can add
the following passages: KausS 41.14, AgnGS 2.5.11 [90.17-91,23], AVPS 30b.l.l7,
65.3.8, Santikalpa 2.17.2 (aindrisanti), Rgvidh 2.155-156. From the Puranas I col-
lected only two cases: Devibhagavata Purana 11.24.57-58 and Bhavisya Purana
4.139.41-42ab. The Amoghapasa mentions rites for rain also in 19a. 1 and 28b. 2.
Only Hemasadh 55 [684.11-12] and 55 [719.8] describe rites for rain. We are left
with the impression that compared with rites to get dinaras, this text pays very
little attention to rainfall.
55 Amoghapasakalparaja 48b. 6-7 [23.6-8] also prescribes a rite for the protection of
the house. Rgvidhana 4.131cd-135 is a rite for the pacification of a dwelling place
(vastusamana) (see above, p. 5) and Samavidhana 3.3.6-7 also teaches the same
rite (see above, p. 10). These rites have been already dealt with in the Grhyasutras:
see, for instance, KausS 23.1-8, JaimGS 2.6 [31.10-32.1], GobhGS 3.9.4, ManGS
2.11.7, BodhGS 3.4.1-21, BharGS 2.4-6 [34.8-37.15], HirGS 1.8.12-15, AgnGS
-35-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
rain (ativrsti): 56 44b.4-5 [60.8-10], to stop wind, cloud and lightning: 57 44b.5
[60.11-12]
3-2-1 absence of fear (abhaya):
Great magic boundary (mahasimabandha): 58 44b.5 [60.10]
3-2-3 release from various evil conditions:
From all sins such as obstruction (papavarana) 59 and from all diseases and
all enemies: 44b.2-3 [59.23-28], from all vinayakas: 44a.3 [58.10-12]
5-2 rites for battle:
Immobilization of an army (sainyastambhana): 44b.5 [60.12], smashing a
hostile army (paracakranidhapana): 44b.5 [60.12-13]
7 sorcery (abhicara):
abhicaruka: 44b. 4 [60.4-5], attraction of a yaksakanyalyaksini: 44a. 4-6
[58.16-26], attraction of Sakra, Brahma, Visnu, Mahesvara, etc.: 44b.6
[60.17-19], attraction of the moon and the sun: 44b.6 [60.19-21], subjugation
of a woman, a man, a boy or a girl: 44a.7 [59.7-9], subjugation of a king, a
minister, a village, a town, etc.: 44a.2 [58.1-4], subjugation of a king and
all that belongs to him: 44a.7 [59.4-7], subjugation of a mahdrdja with his
harem and family: 44b.6-7 [60.21-25], subjugation of the peoples of the four
castes (caturvana loka): 44a.7-44b.l [59.1-3], suppression (nigraha) of all
bhutas, grahas, yaksas and raksasas: 44b.6 [60.25-28]
As in the case of the Vinasikhatantra, the variety of the rites here are also very
limited and the results of these rites are in many cases exaggerated and of a su-
pernatural character. It seems as if the tendency from kdmas to siddhis reaches
its climax in the Amoghapasakalparaja.
2.4.1-2 [61.4-15], AgnGS 2.5.9 [88.5-19], Santikalpa 22.3-5, BodhGSS 1.18 [230-
231], HirGSS 1.6.2 [76.16-28]. See Kane 1977: 790-791.
56 The Amoghapasakalparaja also hands down the same rite in other places, such
as 19a.l, 19a.2-3, 28b.2 and 29b.5. KausS 38.7 is a rite against heavy rain.
Arthasastra 9.7.84 refers to a similar rite.
57 Manjusrimulakalpa 55 [692.2-3] teaches also a similar rite to stop wind and cloud.
58 The rite for making a magic boundary seems to have been a very well-
known rite in esoteric Buddhist texts as one of the preparatory acts, see e.g.
Amoghapasakalparaja 3b.3-4, 3b.5, 6b.6-7, 19a.3, 31a.6, 46a.3-4, 48a.6-7, 48b.2-
3, 50b.4, 65b.3-4, Manjusrimulakalpa 55 [693.16-18], [691.27-692.1], [695.5-8],
[710.15-16]. See also Suvarnaprabhasottamasutra, Sarasvatiparivarta 106.5-
107.3 and Susiddhikara Sutra 18 (Giebel 2001: 201-202).
59 Similar rites for diminishing obstructions caused by previous acts (karmavarana)
are laid down in Manjusiimulakalpa 55 [673.8-9] and [694.24-29].
-36-
From kamas to siddhis
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From kamas to siddhis
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Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo
-39-
The Saiva Age
— The Rise and Dominance of Saivism During the Early Medieval Period —
Alexis Sanderson
The early medieval period, from about the fifth century to the thirteenth,
saw a decline in the role of Srauta sacrifice in the religious ceremonies under-
taken by Indian rulers. But it was not that kings turned aside from the brahman-
ical tradition in a fundamental sense. They continued to uphold the brahmanical
social order of the castes and disciplines (varnasramadharmah) and they were
commonly commended in inscriptions from the fifth to the eighth centuries for
having rigorously imposed it on their subjects. We see this in the case of the
Maukhari Harivarman in the fifth century, the Maharajadhiraja Gopacandra of
Vahga and the Parivrajaka Maharaja Samksobha of Dabhalarajya in the sixth,
the Pusyabhuti Prabhakaravardhana of Kanyakubja, Bhaskaravarman of Prag-
jyotisa, the Maitraka Kharagraha II Dharmaditya of Valabhi, the Gurjara Dadda
III of Bharukaccha in the seventh, and the Licchavi Sivadeva of Nepal at the
turn of the seventh and eighth. 1 The same claim is seen in the account of the
1 CII 3, p. 220, 11. 1-2: varndsramavyavasthdpanapravrttacakrah '[Harivarman],
who set in motion the establishing of the distinctions between the caste-classes
and disciplines'; Rajaguru 1962, 11. 6—9: varndsramavyavasthdhetuh *sdksdd
(corr. Rajaguru -.saksad Ep.) dharma Hvopdttajanmd (corr. : ivopdntajanmd Ra-
jaguru) ■ • .paramamdhesvaro mahdrdjddhirdjasrigopacandra- 'Maharajadhiraja
Gopacandra, entirely devoted to Siva, who caused the distinctions between the
caste-classes and disciplines to be established, as though he were Dharma incar-
nate'; EI 8:28, 11. 11—12: varndsramadharmasthdpandbhiratena (Samksobha);
EI 4:29, 1. 3: varndsramavyavasthdpanapravrttacakrah (Prabhakaravardhana); EI
12:13, 11.34-35: bhagavatd kamalasambhavendvakirnavarndsramadharmapravi-
bhdgdya nirmito bhuvanapatir 'King [Bhaskaravarman], created by Brahma him-
self to separate the caste-classes and disciplines that had abandoned their du-
ties'; CII 3, pp. 173ff., 11.43-44: saksad dharma iva samyagvyavasthapitava-
rndsramdcdrah '[Kharagraha II Dharmaditya], who established the observances
of the the caste-classes and disciplines, as though he were Dharma in visi-
ble form'; CII 4i:21, 11. 7—9: mahdmunimanupranitapravacanddhigamavivekasva-
dharmdnusthdna*pravino (em. MlRASHl :pravani Ep.) varndsramavyavasthon-
mulitasakalakalikdldvalepa<h> '[Dadda III], who uprooted all the taints of this
[degenerate] age of Kali by establishing the separation of the caste-classes and dis-
ciplines, well-versed in the execution of his duty [as the king] through discriminat-
ing understanding of the teachings authored by the great sage Manu'; LKA 140,
11. 1-2: suvihitavarndsramasthitir licchavikulaketur . . . mahdrdjddhirdjasrlsivade-
vah 'Maharajadhiraja Sivadeva, war-banner of the Licchavi dynasty, who correctly
established the system of the caste-classes and disciplines'; LKA 143, 1. 1: sam-
yagviracitasakalavarndsramavyavasthah '[Sivadeva], who correctly fashioned the
system of the distinct castes and disciplines'.
-41-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
history of Kashmir before the advent of the Karkota dynasty in the seventh cen-
tury given in the twelfth by the Kashmirian historian Kalhana. His chronology
for this early phase of his country's history is confused, but it is likely that we
should assign to the fifth or sixth century the king Gopaditya whom he com-
mends for having restored the first and perfect Age through his regard for the
castes and brahmanical disciplines. 2 He also reports a popular belief of his time
that in order to promote the orthodox brahmanical social order the Hephthalite
Mihirakula, who ruled Kashmir in the early sixth century, had settled natives of
Aryadesa in his kingdom, which was then, we are told, devoid of the true religion
(dharmah), being overrun by Dards and Tibetans. 3
Seeing these claims of the royal imposition of the varnasramadharmah one
thinks of the non-geographical definition of territory fit for brahmanical rites
(yajhiyo desah) formulated by Manu's commentator Medhatithi during the ninth
or tenth century, namely that it is any land in which a conquering brahmanical
king settles the four caste-classes and imposes on the rest of the population the
status of untouchables (candalah). This definition served, I propose, to accommo-
date the fact of the territorial expansion of brahmanical society into new regions
that was one of salient features of the early medieval period. 4
2 Rdjatarahginl 1.339: jugopa gopaditya 'tha ksmdm sadvipdm taddtmajah | varnd-
sramapratyaveksddarsitddiyugodayah 'Next his son Gopaditya protected the earth
and its continents, causing men to experience the arising of a [newl First Age
through his attention to [the maintenance of] the caste-classes and disciplines'.
3 Rdjatarahginl 1.312— 313b: dkrdnte ddradair bhauttair mlecchair asucikarmabhih
| vinastadharme dese 'smin *punydcdrapravartane (conj. :pravartanam Ed.) | drya-
desydn sa samsthapya vyatanod ddrunam tapah '*In order to (conj.) promote pious
observance in this land that had been overrun by barbarians of impure conduct,
Dards and Tibetans, and [sol had lost the [brahmanical] Dharma, he settled [brah-
mins] of Aryadesa. Thereafter he performed a terrible penance'. Stein (1979, p. 46),
no doubt faithfully reproducing the reading of the codex archetypus, gives punyd-
cdrapravartanam rather than punyacdrapravartane and this leaves him no alter-
native other than to take not only ddrunam tapah but also this as the object of the
verb: "he performed a terrible penance, and re-established pious observances". But
the reading is unacceptable. For even if one can believe, as I cannot, that punydcdra-
pravartanam vyatanot is not too inelegant an expression for an author of Kalhana's
calibre, there remains the fact that it requires us to believe also that vyatanot gov-
erns two objects even though the conjunction necessary for this interpretation is
lacking. I have therefore emended to punyacdrapravartane, which, taken as an
instance of the use of the locative of purpose (nimittasaptami), yields an entirely
appropriate meaning and supposes a scribal error that is readily explained by the
ease with which readers of the Kashmirian script can mistake -e for -am, the com-
mon substitute for -am. Furthermore, Stein's rendering of dryadesydn samsthapya
as "after killing the inhabitants of Aryadesa" is, in my view, much less probable
than the alternative adopted here, which is to take the verb form samsthapya in its
contextually more appropriate meaning, namely 'having settled'.
4 See Sanderson 2005a, pp. 400-401, citing Medhatithi, Manusmrtibhdsya p. 80,
-42-
The Saiva Age
Thus the first centuries of this period are presented in our sources as
marked not by the decline of brahmanism but rather by its imposition, rein-
forcement, and expansion. Moreover, there is abundant epigraphical evidence
of kings throughout this time bringing Vaidika brahmins into their kingdoms
by making them grants of tax-exempt land, 5 thereby extending the penetration
of brahmanical culture while facilitating the administration of their territories
and promoting agricultural development. 6
Nonetheless, while kings continued to accept their role as the guardians of
the brahmanical order (varnasramaguruh), their personal religious commitment
generally took the form of Buddhism, Jainism, or, more commonly, devotion to
Siva, Visnu, the Sun-God (Surya/Aditya), or the Goddess (Bhagavati), the deities
of the new initiatory religions, allegiances that were commonly declared in their
inscriptions by the inclusion amid their royal titles of epithets that mean 'entirely
11.24-26 on 2.23: yadi kathamcid brahmdvartddidesam api mlecchd dkrameyuh
tatraiva <ca> <svadharma?>vyavasthdnam kuryuh bhaved evdsau mlecchadesah.
tathd yadi kas cit ksatriyddijdtlyo rdjd sddhvdcarano mlecchdn pardjayec cdtur-
varnyam vdsayen mlecchdms cdrydvarta iva cdnddldn vyavasthdpayet so 'pi sydd
yajhiyah 'If somehow foreigners were to invade such [pure] regions as that between
the Sarasvati and Drsadvati rivers (Brahmavarta) <and> impose <their religion?>,
then even they would definitely become foreign lands [unfit for sacrifice]. By the
same standard, if some king belonging to the Ksatriya or other [suitable caste-
class] and of orthodox [brahmanical] observance were to conquer foreigners [in their
lands], settle communities of the four caste-classes [there], and impose on those for-
eigners the status of untouchables, just as in the brahmanical heartland of India
north of the Vindhyas (Aryavarta), then those territories too would be fit for the
performance of [Vaidika] sacrifices'.
' On the duty of the king to donate [tax-free] land and other valuables to learned
Vaidika brahmins (viprdh, srotriydh) see, e.g., Ydjnavalkyasmrti 1. 315-320; 1. 323:
ndtah parataro dharmo nrpdndm yad randrjitam | viprebhyo diyate dravyam . . .
'There is no higher religious obligation for kings than that of bestowing the wealth
they acquire through war on learned Vaidika brahmins ...'; Visnusmrti 3.81-82:
brdhmanebhyas ca bhuvam pratipddayet . . . 'He should bestow land on brah-
mins'. On the king's duty not to tax learned Vaidikas see Manusmrti 7.133ab:
mriyamdno 'py ddadita na rdjd srotriydt karam 'Even though dying [through
poverty] a king may not levy a tax from a learned Vaidika'. The giving of land
to learned brahmins is already advocated at length as the king's religious duty in
the Mahdbhdrata {Anusdsanaparvan, Adhydya 61); and that passage includes an
injunction that it should be read to the king immediately after his consecration
(13.61.36: abhisicyaiva nrpatim srdvayed imam dgamam).
' For a study of land-grants to brahmins (brahmadeyam, agrahdrah, sdsanam) dur-
ing our period in a particular region, Orissa and northern Andhra Pradesh, see
Singh 1994, pp. 123-243. For the same in the Far South in Pallava and Cola times
see Karashima 1984, especially pp. 3, 36-40, and 129; and Stein 1994, especially
pp. 63-89 and 141-172. The migration of groups of north-Indian Vaidika brahmins
as recipients of royal grants is the subject of Datta 1989. See also Dutta 1995,
pp. 97-118 on the practice and implications of land-grants to brahmins in northern
India c. 400-700.
-43-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
devoted' to the founder or deity of whichever of these religions they favoured.
THE DOMINANCE OF SAIVISM
Among these alternatives devotion to Siva was the most commonly adopted.
During this period the epithet paramamahesvarah 'entirely devoted to Siva' is
the most frequently encountered in declarations of the religious adherence of
rulers; 7 and of the many temples surviving or reported in inscriptions that were
established by rulers and other notables from the late sixth century onwards in
the subcontinent, the Khmer realm, the Cham kingdoms of Indo-China, and the
kingdoms of Java and Bali, those dedicated to the worship of this god are much
the most numerous. 8
The preponderance of Saivism during this period is also revealed by evidence
that all the other religious traditions competing for patronage were colonized or
7 The royal epithet paramamahesvarah first appears in the epigraphical record in
the fourth century in Andhra, in an inscription of the Salankayana Maharaja De-
vavarman of Vengipura (EI 9:7, 11. 1-7), probably the earliest of the Salarikayanas
in our records since this inscription alone is in Prakrit: sirivijayavehgipura bha-
gavato cittarathasamipadanujjhatassa bappabhattarakapadabhattasya parama-
mahessarassa salahkayanassa asamedhaydjino maharajasirivijayadevavammassa
vayanena . . . 'From victorious Vengipura: by the command of the Salankayana,
who has performed the Asvamedha sacrifice, the venerable Maharaja Vijayadeva-
varman, favoured by [his kuladevata, the Siva] Citrarathasvamin, loyal to [his]
venerable father, entirely devoted to Siva . . . '. It is mostly found in inscriptions but
occasionally appears on coinage. Thus the coins of Krsnaraja, the Kalacuri king
of Mahismati, who ruled c. 550-575, have on their reverse, (with corrected ortho-
graphy): paramamahesvara matapitrpadanudhyata srikrsnaraja (MlRASHl, CII 4i
p. clxxxi). This is the standard term, as is confirmed by its use in literary sources.
But we also find the synonym atyantamahesvarah (e.g. CII 5:3, 1. 8: Vakataka
Prthivlsena I, late fourth century), and, though very rarely and not to my knowledge
in any inscription, paramasaivah (Petech 1984, pp. 57 and 61: the twelfth-century
Nepalese kings Indradeva and Anandadeva in the colophons of manuscripts). That
the Taddhita mahesvarah is to be understood as formed from the name Mahesvara
in the meaning 'devoted to Mahesvara' (mahesvarabhaktah), i.e. 'devoted to Siva',
is proved beyond doubt by the occurrence in inscriptions of analytic renderings of
parallel terms. Thus where the affiliation is with Visnu (/Bhagavat) we see not
only paramabhagavatah but also param bhagavadbhaktah and in the case of the
Sun-god (Surya/Aditya) we see both paramasaurah and paramadityabhaktah. And
there are some cases in which the name of the deity precludes any but the analytic
form. Thus where the deity is the Goddess or Mahabhairava we see param bha-
gavatibhaktah and atyantasvamimahabhairavabhaktah. For all these epithets see
Mirashi CII 3, pp. 253-254, n. 3.
8 This can readily be observed by perusing the published volumes of EITA. On the
pre-eminence of Saivism among the Khmers up to the fall of Angkor see SANDER-
SON 2005a, pp. 402-421. For the situation in Karnataka, where Saiva foundations
greatly outnumbered others throughout the perod from the fifth to fourteenth cen-
turies see p. 298. For Kashmir see p. 298, and for Andhra see p. 300.
-44-
The Saiva Age
profoundly influenced by it. In the first part of this study I shall present this
evidence for each religion in turn, but with particular attention to Buddhism. In
the second I shall attempt to explain the factors that enabled Saivism to attain
this dominant position.
The Incorporation of Saktism
The worship of the Goddess was progressively subsumed within Saivism,
being promoted by its adherents as a higher form of that religion. 9 The Saiva
mainstream was, as one might expect, focused on Siva. This is so in the
earliest forms of the religion, which later Saivas would call the Atimarga,
practised by such Saiva ascetics as the Pancarthikas, Lakulas, and So-
masiddhantins, and it continued to be so in the Siddhanta, the core tradition of
the Mantramarga that emerged out of the Atimarga from about the fifth century
onwards, first in the corpus of Nisvasa scriptures 10 and then in a number of
others, notable among which are the Paramesvara (Pauskaraparamesvara),
the Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha, the Rauravasutrasamgraha, the Matanga-
paramesvara, the Sarvajnanottara, the Kalottara in a number of redactions, the
Kirana, the Parakhya, the Mrgendra, the Brhatkalottara, the Mayasamgraha,
the Devydmata, and the Mohacudottara, the last three representing a sub-corpus
of texts of more restricted application concerned with the rituals of the installa-
tion of images and the consecration of temples, an area in which officiants of the
Siddhanta were the dominant operatives. But as this Saiddhantika core grew
it was progressively surrounded by a diverse array of related liturgical systems
for the propitiation of various forms of the ferocious deity Bhairava, seen by
his devotees as a higher, more esoteric manifestation of Siva, and of forms of
the Goddess seen as embodiments of Siva's divine power (saktih). The Saiva
scriptures devoted to the cult of Bhairava came to be known collectively as the
Mantrapitha or Mantra Corpus, headed by the Svacchandatantra, which teaches
the cult of Svacchandabhairava and his consort Aghoresvari, and the earlier
among those devoted to cults of Goddesses as the Vidyapitha or Vidya Corpus, 11
9 On the Sakta elements in Saivism see Sanderson 1988, 1995a, and 2007a.
10 On the transitional character of the Nisvasa between the Lakula Atimarga and
the mature Siddhanta see Sanderson 2006, and 2001, pp. 29-31, fn. 32. On the
probable date of its earliest part see Goodall and Isaacson 2007.
11 For the use of the term pitham in this context in the meaning 'corpus' or 'collec-
tion' see Tantraloka 37.18c-19cl, quoting or paraphrasing the lost Anandasastra:
srimadanandasastradau proktam bhagavata kila || samuhah pitham etac ca dvidha
daksinavamatah | mantro vidyeti 'The Lord has taught in such scriptures as the
Ananda that pitham [here means] the corpus [of the non-Saiddhantika Saiva scrip-
tures!. It is divided into two, to the right and left [respectively], namely the
-45-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
headed by (1) the Jayadrathayamala, also known as the Sirascheda, consisting
of four parts called hexads (satkam) because each is approximately six thousand
verses in length, which teaches the cult of KalasamkarsanI or Kali in the first
and those of numerous goddesses worshipped as her esoteric embodiments in
the remaining three parts, evidently added at a later date — closely related to
parts of this huge corpus are the scriptures of the Kalikula, Kalikulakrama-
sadbhdva, Kalikulapancasataka and others, that were the scriptural basis of
the Kalikula Kali cult known as the Krama, Mahanaya, or Mahartha — , (2) the
Siddhayogesvarimata, which teaches the cult of the goddesses Para, Parapara,
and Apara, to which the MalinZvijayottara is related, the scripture taken as the
foundation of the Trika variant of Sakta Saivism expounded in the Tantraloka
of the great Kashmirian Saiva Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975-1025), (3) the Picumata
or Brahmaydmala, which teaches the cult of the goddess Canda Kapalini and
numerous related Kalpas, and (4) the texts of the vdmasrotah, of which only the
Vlnasikha has come down to us intact, which teach the cult of the four goddesses
Jaya, Vijaya, Jayanti/Ajita, and Aparajita, the sisters of the god Tumburu,
venerated as an aspect of Siva. 12
Mantrafpitha] and the Vidyapitha'. The terms 'right' and 'left' assigned to the
two Pithas follow the common notion that these are the relative positions of the
male/masculine and female/feminine, Mantras being masculine and the deities they
embody male and Vidyas being feminine and their deities female.
12 The distinction in terms of left and right between the two Pithas in the passage
of the Ananda cited in the preceding footnote must not be confused with that
between the right current (daksinasrotah) and the left current (vdmasrotah) of
the Saiva scriptures, which derives from the fact that these are thought to have
emerged from the right and left faces of the five-faced composite Sadasiva, those
of Aghora (Bhairava) and the feminine Vamadeva respectively. For of the texts of
the two Pithas only those of the cult of the four sisters are assigned to the lat-
ter. The Siddhayogesvarimata and the Picumata are both assigned to the former,
while according to itself the first Satka of the Jayadrathayamala is a hybrid of
both (ubhaydtmakam); see SANDERSON 2002, pp. 1-2. Of the other three faces the
front and rear, the faces of Tatpurusa and Sadyojata, are seen as the source of the
Garudatantras and Bhutatantras, texts concerned respectively with procedures for
the curing of the effects of poisons and demonic possession, while the upper face,
that of Isana, is seen as the source of the scriptures of the Siddhanta, revealing that
this, unlike the distinction between the two Pithas, is a Siddhanta-centric system
of classification. It is adapted by the non-Saiddhantika Abhinavagupta as the basis
of his esoteric account of the nature of the Saiva canon in the Malinivijayavartika
but only by adding a sixth, upper-upper current (urdhvordhvasrotah) above the
Siddhanta as the source of the non-dualistic Kaula (Sakta) revelation that he takes
to be the ultimate ground of the entire canon. Malinivijayavartika 1.160-163b:
prakrtam brumahe devivisrstds citrasamvidah | ydvat tdvat tad urdhvordhvam
sroto yad bhedavarjitam || 161 saurabhargasikhddini tatah sastrani tenire | uktam
bhargasikhayam ca devena paramesthina || 162 urdhvasrotodbhavam jhanam
idam tat paramam priye | paramadhvaninordhvotthasamvidrupabhidhayind \\
-46-
The Saiva Age
To these we may add the scriptures of two later Sakta cults, those of the
goddesses Kubjika and Tripurasundari. The scriptures of the former, the Ku-
bjikdmata and related texts such as the Satsahasra, do not claim to be part of
the Vidyapitha. But they are closely related to, and draw heavily on, the sub-
corpus of texts within the Vidyapitha that is headed by the Siddhayogesvarimata
and is asssociated with the Sakta system that would be developed under the
name of the Trika: the Siddhayogesvarimata itself, the [Trika]kularatnamala,
the Tantrasadbhava, the Devyayamala, and the Trisirobhairava. Also allied
in character is the Nityasodasikarnava or Vamakesvarimata, the fundamental
scripture of the cult of the goddess Tripurasundari. This, which became the
most widely established of India's Sakta cults, has no direct antecedents in the
Vidyapitha literature, but is rather an independent development out of an ear-
lier Sakta tradition of the propitiation of goddesses known as the Nityas in which
rites for success in love predominated. 13 This early cult was eclipsed by its
isanavaktraniryatat siddhantad bhedam adisat T shall return now to the matter in
hand. The nondualistic upper-upper stream is present when the various modes of
consciousness are [still] in the state of [primal] emission within the Goddess [Para].
From this [state of fusion] are created the Saurabhargasikha and other such [nond-
ualistic (Kaula) scriptures]. And the Supreme Lord has spoken [to this effect] in the
Bhargasikhd [itself], saying, "This knowledge, O beloved, is the supreme product of
the upper face". By using the word supreme [here] in reference to the nature of the
consciousness that has arisen from this upper [face] he shows that he means some-
thing different from [and superior to] the Siddhanta, which has come forth from the
face of Isana'.
1 The distinctness of this tradition is expressed in the Kumdrikhanda of the
Manthdnabhairava in an account of the hierarchy of the various soteriolo-
gies. It places those who follow the scripture(s) of the Nityas above those of
the Atimargic traditions (Mausula, Vaimala, Lakula) and below those of the
Bhairava corpus comprising the scriptures of the left and right currents. Above
this it places six Sakta Tantras (parasatkam): three of the Trika (Sadardha
[=Mdlinivijayottara], Bhairavafkula], and Viravali, then the Kdlikula [texts] of
the Krama, and finally itself, in two scriptural levels. It is significant that
it does not put the Nitya cult on the level of its Sakta Tantras or even on
that of the Bhairavatantras below them; see f. 213r3-7 (Muktisamgrahasutra,
vv. 108-114c): *musuldyudhahastdndm (em. : mausuldyudhahastdndm Cod.)
mdydtattvam param padam | suddhajhdnamayd vidyd vaimaldndm param padam
|| 109 astapramdnavedajhd Idkuldrthavisdraddh | urate pdsupate caiva aisvaram
paramam padam || 110 navanityagamajnanam sivatattvam param padam
| tasyordhve *kdrandn (em. : karanah Cod.) panca tyaktvd urdhvam tu
bhairava<h> \\ 111 * sastatantratantrikdnam (?) nityanandam param padam \
samandntakaldtltam vamadaksinasamsthitam || 112 pahktikramena mokso 'sti
satyam nasty atra samsayah | tasya urdhve parasatkam upary upari samsthitam ||
113 sadardham prathamam bhedam bhairavakhyam dvitlyakam | viravali trtlyam
tu caturtham kalikakulam || 114 tatas tv adyavataram tu tasya urdhvam anahatam
| srimatkulalikakhyam 'The final destination of the [Mausula Pasupatas,] those
who carry a club in their hands, is Mayatattva. That of the Vaimala[pasupata]s
is Suddhavidya[tattva]. For those who are versed in the Lakulafpasupata] doctrine,
-47-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
much more successful successor. But nonetheless evidence of it has survived,
attesting two forms. One is taught in the Nitydkaula, of which a single, in-
complete manuscript has come down to us in Nepal. Here the goddess Tripura
is surrounded by a circle of twelve deities comprising eleven Nitya goddesses
and Kamadeva, the Indian Cupid. 14 The other has been preserved in the eclec-
tic Manthanabhairava, whose Siddhakhanda contains detailed manual-like in-
structions for a Sakta cult of Tripura and nine Nityas with Kamadeva as her
consort. 15 The earlier prominence of the Nitya cult is indicated by the fact that
a syncretistic text of the cult of Kubjika, the *Cincinimatasarasamuccaya, con-
tains a section drawn from the Nitydkaula, or from some lost text closely re-
lated to it, in which it sets out this cult as the 'teaching of the southern or-
mastering the eight Pramdna scriptures, and for [those, the Pancarthikapasupatas,
who engage] in the Pasupata observance, it is [the Tattva] of Isvara. For those
versed in the scriptural tradition of the Nine Nityas it is Sivatattva. Above that
is Bhairava, transcending [all] the five Causes: Brahma, Visnu, Rudra, Isvara, and
Sadasiva]. This, eternal bliss, is the final destination of the Tantrikas of the Tantras
of the eight [Bhairavas] [v. 132: the Niskala-Svacchandabhairava, the Sakala-
Svacchandabhairava , the Bahurupabhairava, the Aghorisabhairava , the Vyddhi-
bhaksabhairava, the Candragarbhabhairava, the Vijndnabhairava, the Tumburu-
bhairava (perhaps =the Vindsikha), and the Amrtesvarabhairava (=Netratantra)].
It is beyond the [universe] that culminates in Samana and is established in [the
two divisions of the Bhairavatantras, those of] the left [current (vdmasrotah)] and
[those of] the right [daksinasrotah]. The truth — there is no [room for] doubt in this
matter — is that liberation is [attained in each these systems but] in the manner
of ascending a ladder. Above that are the six ascending [divisions of the scrip-
tures] of Para. The first division is the Sadardha (=Mdlinivijaya, vv. 125a and
133cd), the second the Bhairava[kula] (=Klinndnvayayoga, v. 134a), the third the
Virdvali (=Virdvalikuldmndya, v. 134c), and the fourth the Kdlikula [scriptures]
(=Kdlikdkrama, v. 134d). Above this is the Adydvatdra [of the Pascimamnaya], and
above that the Anahata [revelation] called Kuldlikd[mndya]' . It is striking that this
passage omits the Saiddhantikas. It is therefore likely that the text has lost a line
or verse here. This suspicion is strengthened by the verses that follow. For in these
the order of systems is repeated with saivam, i.e. the Siddhanta's scriptures, be-
tween the pdsupatam and the eight Bhairavatantras (v. 128bcd: tat hd pdsupatam
mahat \ saivam tasya visesam tu bhairavdstakanirnayam). Since the passage also
omits Sadasivatattva it is probable that it was this level that was assigned to the
Saiddhantika system in the lost line or verse. To assign the Saiddhantikas to
Sadasivatattva would, of course, be to disdain their claim that their param padam
is in fact Sivatattva.
14 The eleven Nityas of this text are Hrllekha, Kledini, Nanda, Ksobham,
Madanatura, Niranjana, Ragavati, Madanavati, Khekala, Dravani and Vegavati;
see Nitydkaula, f. 2r7-2vl.
15 Manthanabhairava, Siddhakhanda, ff. 186v-231rl. The nine Nityas are
Kulavidya, Vajresvari, Tvarita, Kurukulla, Lalita, Bherunda, Nilapataka, Mangala
and Vyomavyapim. The section on Tripura continues to f. 252v and includes the
text of the Nitydsodasikdrnava. The folio numbers are those of a palm-leaf manu-
script in private hands, to which I have had access through digital images kindly
provided by my former pupil and present colleague Dr. Somdev Vasudeva.
-48-
The Saiva Age
der' (daksinagharamnayah), grouping it with the cult of Kubjika, the cult of
Kali (Kalikula) in a form attested in the Jayadrathayamala and the related cor-
pus of the scriptures of the Krama or Mahanaya, and a form of Sakta worship
agreeing closely with that found in the Trika, calling these the teachings of the
western, northern, and eastern orders respectively (Pascimagharamnaya, Ut-
taragharamnaya, and Purvagharamnaya).
The Saktism of this tetradic schema of the directional Amnayas can be dis-
tinguished broadly from the earlier Saktism of the Vidyapitha by a marked ten-
dency to expurgate one of the most conspicuous features of the latter, namely
its embeddedness in the intensely transgressive tradition of Kapalika asceti-
cism whose roots lie in the Somasiddhantin division of the Atimarga. Since the
Saktism of the Amnayas refers to itself as Kaula we may use this term to des-
ignate these post-Kapalika developments. However, like most terms applied to
traditions subject to change through time it serves at best to indicate a tendency
rather than an absolute distinction. For while the cults of Tripurasundari and
Kubjika adhered to this mode of self-definition and the Trika that developed out
of the Siddhayogesvarimata also came to do so, 16 the cult of Kali that came to
constitute the Kaulas' Northern Teaching (uttaramnayah) remained both Kaula
in its self-definition and firmly Kapalika in its practise. 17
16 On the anti-Kapalika stance of the mature Trika see Sanderson 2005c, pp. 118-
119, fn. 74.
17 For the Kapalika/Mahavratin asceticism of practitioners of the Uttaramnaya,
that is to say of the Kalikula and Krama/Mahanaya, see Sanderson 2007a,
pp. 293-294 (Cakrabhanu, Isani, and Jaiyaka), 323 (Cakrapaninatha, author of
the Bhavopaharastotra). Concerning the date of Cakrapaninatha I was able to
say in 2007a (p. 417) only that he was earlier than his commentator Ramyadeva,
who was later than Ksemaraja, which is to say, next to nothing. However,
since then I have read a Nepalese manuscript, NGMPP CI 14/22, which con-
tains his Bhavopaharastotra under the title Bhavopaharapuja, and this enables
us to include him among relatively early authors, since the manuscript is dated
in 1158/9. To the Kashmirian exponents of the Krama identified as follow-
ers of the Kapalika observance in 2007a I now propose to add one more. Ac-
cording to a manuscript of the Chummasamketaprakdsa that I had not seen at
that time, which contains the final verses of the work that are lacking in the
one manuscript that I had seen then, the redactor of this text attributed to
Niskriyananda was one Anantasakti. He is described there as mudradharah (A,
f. Ilr7— 9): samsarasambhramacayapravibhagabandhasambandhasamksaya*gatir
(em. : gater Cod.) avikalpamurtih \ saksad anabiladhiya laghuvakkramena
mudradharas tu vidadhe tad anantasaktih. This expression I take to have
the same meaning as pancamudradharah 'wearer of the five sect marks [of
the Kapalika/Mahavratin]'; see, e.g., Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha, Patala 14
(satsamayabhedah), one of the chapters that is not part of the original work of this
name, vv. 19-20: caturdasapramanena yuktam kapalam ucyate | kapale ca vratam
mukhyam sarvapapanikrntanam \ tasmin vratam cared yas tu sanmasan mu-
ktim apnuyat \ pancamudradharah santah samayacdrapalakah; and Kubjikamata
-49-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
In general we may say that these non-Saiddhantika texts with their
strongly Sakta orientation emerged after the Siddhanta or at least after the
emergence of its earliest scriptures. Thus, for example, it is clear in my view that
the Svacchandatantra was redacted after the formation of the Saiddhantika
Nisvasa corpus, the Tantrasadbhava after the Svacchanda, the Kubjikdmata
after the Tantrasadbhava, , 18 the first hexad of the Jayadrathaydmala after the
Kubjikdmata, 19 and the remaining three hexads after the first. 20 However, I see
no reason to conclude that all that is found in the non-Saiddhantika corpus is
post-Saiddhantika and some grounds for thinking that some elements may be as
old or older. This may be the case with the cult of the four sisters of Tumburu.
For that is known to the Buddhist Dharmakirti (fl. c. 550-650), 21 and the first
two folios of a post-scriptural text on this cult, the *Devitantrasadbhdvasdra,
written in learned style in the Arya metre, have survived among the Buddhist
manuscripts uncovered in Gilgit in 1931. They may be assigned on palaeo-
graphical grounds to around the middle of the sixth century 22 A second area
25.31cd: pancamudradharo vapi bhasmanistho digambarah. He is probably
one with the Anantasakti who wrote the published commentary on the Krama's
Vatulanathasutra but probably not with the Anantasakti who has left us a com-
mentary (Visamapadasamketa), as yet unpublished, on the Bahurupagarbhastotra;
see Sanderson 2007a, p. 344.
18 See the evidence for this sequence in Sanderson 2001, pp. 20-35.
19 See Sanderson 2002, p. 1 and note 4 on p. 21.
20 See Sanderson 2002, p. 2 and note 13 on p. 22.
21 See Sanderson 2001, pp. 11-13, fn. 10.
22 No title appears in the surviving fragment of this text. The title assigned here
is a guess based on the unknown author's description of his work in verses 3
and 4. There he says that he is extracting the fundamentals (sarah) of the
Essence of the Tantras (tantrasadbhava!}) of the [four] Goddesses (devinam) that
had been received from Siva by a sage identified only as the ornament of the lin-
eage of Atri: 3 atreyavahsatilakenoktam sarvad avapya yat purvam \ suramuni-
narasuranam devinam tantrasadbhavam || 4 tasmad aham apy adhuna vaksye
samhrtya saram aryabhih | spastataraksarapahktibhir avisaladhiyam *prabodhaya
(em. : pravodhata Cod.) 'The Essence of the Tantras of the Goddesses was received
of old from Siva by the ornament of the lineage of Atri and taught to the gods, sages,
men, and titans. I in turn have summarized its fundamentals and shall now declare
them in Arya verses whose lines of syllables will be completely clear in meaning, for
the instruction of those of modest intellect'. The script is the stage of proto-Sarada
that Prof. Lore Sander has called Gilgit/Bamiyan type 2 and also Sonderschrift
1. I stumbled upon the first folio (3221-3222) while searching the facsimiles of the
Gilgit manuscripts for proto-Tantric Buddhist materials and communicated this un-
expected discovery to Somdev Vasudeva, then my student, who promptly located
the second folio (3340-3341) and presented convincing palaeographical arguments
for the date of the manuscript proposed here (email of 7.12.2000), pointing to the
presence of the archaic tripartite ya ligature, the occurrence of the old style of hr ,
and the Gupta style ru. The text teaches the Mantras of the four DevTs, who, it says,
were made manifest at the beginning of creation so that men could attain supernat-
-50-
The Saiva Age
of the non-Saiddhantika canon that is likely to be very early in origin is that
of the Yamalatantras assigned to the Vidyapltha, represented in our surviving
manuscripts by the 12000-verse Picumata, also called the Brahmaydmala. For
the Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda, whose earliest surviving manuscript was
completed in 810, lists seven Yamala texts, beginning with the Brahmaydmala,
as Tantras of the Mother Goddesses (matrtantrani). 23 The date of the text
itself is still a matter of debate; but it is unlikely to have been composed later
than the end of the seventh century or earlier than the sixth. 24 It is certainly
ural accomplishments and liberation (v. lied: prddurbhutd devyah siddhyartham
muktaye caiva), their ancillaries (ahgamantrdh), their retinue of [four] Dutis and
[four] Kirikaras (v. 16bc: dutyas sakihkard<h>), Tumburu (v. 17ab: pranavam
tumburusahitam sarthavaha +), and the Ahkusa (v. 18bc: sapranavam HUM-PHAT-
viniyuktam ahkusam etat). The Vindsikha, our only complete surviving Tantra of
the vdmasrotah, teaches the four Devls (vv. 30c-32b), Tumburu (vv. 29c-30b), and
the Ahkusa (v. 41d etc.), but not the Dutis or Kihkaras. For the fuller pantheon see,
e.g., Devydmata, f. 40rl:jayd ca vijayd caiva jayanti cdpardjitd | dutibhih kihkaraih
sdrdham samvrtas *tumburuh (corr : tumburum Cod.) sthitah; Netratantra 11.1—
27; and Sdraddtilaka 19.87-105b and Tantrasdrasamgraha 23.37-52 (with the four
Dutis but without the Kirikaras). The expression sdrthavdhah 'the [international]
trader' in v. 17b (v. 17ab: pranavam tumburusahitam sarthavaha +) no doubt refers
to Tumburu, who is so described in the Buddhist version of this cult taught in the
Manjusriyamulakalpa (47.29b, 52a, 54c, p. 413, 1. 12, etc.). According to that source
the four sisters and Tumburu are to be depicted sailing in a ship with Tumburu at
the helm (47.24: nauydnasamdrudhd<h> sabhrdtrsahapancamd<h> \ karnadhdro
*'rthacit (tentative conj. : 'thacit Ed.) tdsdm *tumburundmasamjnitah (em. : turn-
burur ndma samjnitah Ed.). See also here p. 130. This depiction is also prescribed
in the Saiva Pihgaldmata, f. 28v5-6 (Citrddhikdra, v. 35): jayddyds cakragds tadvat
pahktisthd vd likhet \ kramdt ndvdrudhds ca vd likhyds tumburuh karnadhdrakah
'He should depict Jaya[, Vijaya, Jayanti,] and [Aparajita] forming a circle or in a
line. Alternatively he may depict them on board a ship with Tumburu as the helms-
man'. For the early date of this cult see also here p. 129.
1 See Sanderson 2001, pp. 6-7, fn. 4 and here p. 229 (171.127-130b) and a discus-
sion of the titles it contains. The oldest manuscript is dated in the year 234. For
this date and its equivalence to a.d. 810 see Adriaensen, Barker and Isaac-
son 1994, p. 326. That the era of the date is that of the Licchavi Manadeva
(=Amsuvarman) was first proposed by Witzel (1986, p. 256, n. 9). The date of
the commencement of this unnamed era which is seen in Nepalese inscriptions that
begin during the reign of the Nepalese king Manadeva was determined to fall in
A.D. 576 on the basis of Tibetan evidence by Luciano Petech (1961). Previously it
had been assumed that the era was that of Harsa (a.d. 606).
' Yuko Yokochi has observed (1999a, pp. 81-82) that the icon of the goddess
MahisasuramardinI seen in texts of the sixth and seventh centuries gives way to
a new iconic type around the beginning of the eighth century and that this text be-
longs with the earlier sources in this regard. The same scholar has shown (1999b,
pp. 68-75) that the description of MahisasuramardinI in 68.10-23 of the text cor-
responds most closely to the image of MahisasuramardinI from Siddhi-kl-Gupha at
Deogarh, an example of her Gupta subtype B2. She argues that this was carved in
the middle of the sixth century or, at the latest, at its the end (pp. 74-75). So, she
concludes, "the possibility that the text belongs to the same century can no longer
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
striking in this regard that it betrays no knowledge of the Siddhanta, its
Saivism being Atimargic, 25 a circumstance which supports the hypothesis that
the polarity seen in the Mantramarga between Saivism and Sakta Saivism
was already present in some form when the former was still in the Atimarga
stage. 26 Royal devotion to Bhairava certainly goes back before the Siddhanta's
emergence, being attributed in Vakataka inscriptions to Rudrasena I, who ruled
c. 335-c. 360, 27 and a copperplate decree issued by Maharaja Bhulunda in 376
from Bagh (Valkha) in Madhya Pradesh records a grant made to support the
worship of the Mothers in a temple of those deities established by an officiant of
the Atimarga, the Pasupatacarya Bhagavat Lokodadhi. 28
In the light of this evidence that Saktism was extensively incorporated into
and developed within Saivism it should not be surprising to discover that in spite
of the prevalence of the worship of the Goddess in early medieval India kings
identified in inscriptions as devotees of the Goddess (bhagavatibhaktah) rather
than Siva are very rare. At present I am aware only of Nagabhata, Bhoja, and
his successor Mahlpala I in the ninth century among the Gurjara-Pratiharas of
Kanyakubja. 29
Royal devotion to a goddess, typically as a dynasty's lineage deity (kuladevi,
vamsadevi, gotradevi), was very common during our period, and such deities are
often declared in inscriptions to be the source of a king's sovereignty and mar-
tial might. 30 But this was not sufficient to mark out kings who worshipped such
goddesses as Saktas. For such worship was common regardless of a king's reli-
be repudiated" (p. 75). The Gupta type, in one subtype or another, was popular from
the 5th century to the 8th.
25 The Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda is not a text of the Atimarga in the sense that
it was written for initiates in one of its systems. For since it is a Purana its target
audience is the uninitiated laity. However, the Saivism that it draws on is Pasupata
rather than Mantramargic. This Atimargic background is conspicuous throughout
the text; but see particularly Adhyayas 174-183.
26 Hypothesis first proposed in SANDERSON 1988, p. 667.
27 See, e.g., the Tirodi plates of Pravarasena II, r. c. 400-c. 450, CII 5:11, 11.3-6:
atyantasvamimahabhairavabhaktasya . . . maharajasrirudrasenasya. The same for-
mula appears in all the other surviving copper-plates of this king that are complete
at this point (CII 5:1, 4, 6-7, 10, 13-14, 18). For these approximate regnal dates of
Rudrasena 1 1 am following Barker 1997, p. 169.
28 Ramesh and Tewari 1990:10, 11. 2-6: bhagavallokodadhipasupatacaryapratistha-
pitakapinchikanakagrdmamatrsthdnadevakulasya pihchikanakam eva gramam
saha bhadradattavatakagramavatakacchena devagraharamatrnafm] balicaru-
sattradhupagandhapuspamalyopayojyabhogaya
29 EI 14:13, 11.6, 7, 7-8: param bhagavatibhakto maharajasrinagabhatadevas
...param bhagavatibhakto maharajasribhojadevas ...param bhagavatibhakto
maharajasrimahendrapaladevas . . .
30 For some examples see Sanderson 2007b, pp. 288-290.
-52-
The Saiva Age
gious affiliation, and it was in any case inconstant, coming to the fore only on cer-
tain occasions, particularly during the autumnal Navaratra festival that inaugu-
rates the season of military activity, when they and associated goddesses received
large-scale animal sacrifices; 31 and when this cult was particularly emphasized
through the forging of connections with a higher domain of non-periodic, exclu-
sive devotion, then this domain was that of the esoteric goddesses of the Saiva
Vidyapitha. 32
The Etiolation and Subsumption of the Cult of the Sun-God
As for the cult of the Sun, kings who have been declared in inscriptions
to be devotees of this god (paramasaurah, paramadityabhaktah, and the
like) are also few and they are mostly confined to the sixth and seventh cen-
turies. We have Dharmaraja of Padmakholi in the Ganjam District of Orissa,
Dharapatta, the Maitraka of Valabhi, Rajyavardhana, Adityavardhana, and
Prabhakaravardhana, the three successive predecessors of King Harsa of
Kanyakubja, in the sixth century, and from c. 570 to c. 665 the Gurjara feuda-
On Navaratra see Sanderson 2005a, p. 371 (fn. 64); 2005b, pp. 255-257; 2007b,
pp. 263-277 and 294 (fn. 196). For an example of the scale of such annual sacrifices
see p. 247 below.
In general we may say that the Saivism of the Mantramarga holds itself aloof from
the domain of calendrical religion, seeing the recurrent festivals of that domain as
commemorations of mythic events and therefore as operating on a level of mun-
dane belief that initiates must transcend. That is the territory of Puranic religion,
which guarantees various rewards but not the liberation or supernatural effects and
powers promised to observant initiates into the Mantramarga. Saiva initiates were
merely required to track the Puranic calendar by intensifying their own regular cult
on days when uninitiated devotees were celebrating Siva's or the Goddess' activi-
ties in the domain of myth-based devotion; see, e.g., Tantrdlokaviveka on 28.6d-7b.
Nonetheless, we see a distinct tendency for the Mantramarga to seep downwards
into this domain providing Saiva or Sakta Saiva versions of the Puranic rituals
that mark such major annual festivals as Sivaratri and Navaratra. A Sakta Saiva
procedure for the celebration of Sivaratri was current in Kashmir, as can be seen
from the prescriptions set out in the Nityadisamgraha of Rajanaka Taksakavarta
(ff. 71v-72vl5) from the lost Dutidamara and in the 31st chapter of the Haracar-
itacintamani of Rajanaka Jayadratha in the thirteenth century, drawing on this
and the Anantabhaskara. The same can be seen in various regions in the case of the
Navaratra, also known as the Durgotsava. Among the Newars of the Kathmandu
valley, the goddess is worshipped in this festival in a Tantric form as Ugracanda
in Paddhatis that incorporate her among such Mantramargic Sakta deities as
Siddhilaksmi and Kubjika; see the Newari Navaratrapujavidhi manuscripts A and
B in the bibliography. For her Tantric worship in this context in the tradition of
the Paippaladin Atharvavedins of Orissa see Sanderson 2007b, pp. 263-276. In
Bengal, where Navaratra was and is much emphasized, we see a Smarta procedure
but one that has been strongly Tantricized in the Durgapujdprayogatattva section
of the Durgapujatattva of Raghunandana in the 16th century.
-53-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tories of Bharukaccha (Broach). This is explicitly stated in the case of Dadda
I (r. c. 570-595), and Dadda II (r. c. 620-645); and it is probable in the case of
Jayabhata II (r. c. 645-665), since it is very likely that the temple of the Sun-god
Jayaditya at Kotipura near Kavi in the Broach District was founded by him with
his name (Jaya-). It is also probable in the case of Jayabhata I (r. c. 595-620),
since this was the religion not only of his predecessor and successor but also
of his brother Ranagraha. After Jayabhata II the next three kings of this
dynasty, Dadda III (c. 665-690), Jayabhata III (c. 690-715), and Ahirola (c. 715-
720), turned to Saivism, declaring themselves paramamahesvarah. In the ninth
century we have royal devotees of the Sun in Ramabhadra, the immediate prede-
cessor of the Gurjara-Pratihara Bhojadeva I of Kanyakubja, and Vinayakapala,
the latter's grandson, and, in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, in
the Sena kings of Bengal Laksmanasena and Visvarupasena, though the former
also appears in his inscriptions as a Vaisnava (paramavaisnavah) and, more
specifically, as a devotee of Narasimha (paramanarasimhah). 33
It appears that the Sauras, the initiated devotees of the Sun-god, possessed
their own canon of scriptures, known, like those of the Saivas and the Vaisnava
followers of the Pancaratra, as Samhitas. A list of eighty-five such texts is given
in an account of brahmanical, Paficaratrika (Vaisnava), Saura, and Saiva scrip-
tural authorities, contained in the Saiva scripture Srikanthiyasamhita. No man-
uscript of this text, which was known to Ksemaraja {fl. c. 1000-1050) and prob-
ably to Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975-1025), has come down to us; but I have located
its long section dealing with the canons of scripture in the Nityadisamgraha of
Rajanaka Taksakavarta, a Kashmirian digest of scriptural passages bearing on
the duties of initiated Saivas, compiled at some time after the eleventh century 34
33 EI 28:16: sahasrarasmipadabhakto (Dharmaraja); EI 31:39B,1. 8: paramaditya-
bhaktah (Dharapatta); EI 4:29, 11. 1-3: paramadityabhaktah (the predecessors of
Harsa); CII 4i:16, 1.4: dinakaracaranakamalapranamapanitdsesaduritanivaha-
(Dadda I); ibid., 1.52: dinakaracaranarcanaratasya (Dadda II); CII 4i:18, 1.9: di-
nakarakiranabhyarcanaratasya (Ranagraha); CII 4i:21, 1. 13: paramamahesvarah
(Dadda III); ibid., 11. 16-17: paramamahesvarah (Jayabhata III); CII 4i:24, 11. 20-11:
paramamahesvarah (Ahirola); EI 5:24,1.5: paramadityabhakto (Ramabhadra); EI
14:13, 1. 6: paramadityabhakto (Vinayakapala); SlRCAR 1983a:27, 11. 35-38: para-
masaurah (Laksmanasena); paramasaura (Visvarupasena); EI 12:3,11.23-25: pa-
ramavaisnava- (Laksmanasena); and SlRCAR 1983a:26,ll. 32— 33: -paramanarasi-
mha- (Laksmanasena). For the attribution of the temple of Jayaditya at Kotipura
to Jayabhata II see Mirashi, CII 4i, p. liv.
34 The list of the Saura Samhitas in the Nityadisamgraha is to be found on ff. 4vll-5r6
of the codex unicus. A lightly edited transcript of the whole excerpt on the scriptural
canons has been published as it appears in an apograph contained among the Stein
manuscripts of Oxford's Bodleian Library by Jiirgen Hanneder (1998, pp. 237-
268). The verses on the Saura canon are 74-88 in his edition. On the date of the
compilation of ^the Nityadisamgraha see SANDERSON 2007a, p. 422.
-54-
The Saiva Age
Unfortunately, no manuscript of any one of these Saura scriptures has surfaced;
and the decline of Saurism as a distinct tradition, of which this is the conse-
quence and evidence, is probably to be attributed, at least in part, to a failure to
continue to attract patronage and so maintain its separate identity as Saivism
became more influential and encroached upon its territory
Thus a Saurasamhita of our period sets out the procedure for the worship
of the Sun and no doubt drew on the Saura tradition. 35 But it assigns itself to
the canon of the Saiva scripture Vdthula/Kalottara, 36 a text on which it silently
draws, gives a Saiva account of the place of the Sun in the birth of the uni-
verse, deriving it through emergence from Siva expressed in a phrase found
elsewhere in the Saiva scriptures, 37 and insists that Siva and the Sun are in
essence a single deity 38 Moreover, the worship of the Sun taught in this text
was included by the Saiddhantika Saivas as a compulsory preliminary (afigam)
of the regular worship of Siva himself, appearing first in the sources known
to me in the Siddhdntasdrapaddhati of Maharajadhiraja Bhojadeva of Dhara
(r. c. 1018-1060) 39 and then soon afterwards, in dependence on that text, in the
35 A critical edition of this text is being prepared for publication by Dr. Divakar
Acharya. I am very grateful to him for sending me drafts of this edition. The text
survives in a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript with a scribal date that falls in A.D.
949 (NAK MS 1/1231, NGMPP A1161/6).
36 Saurasamhita 1.5: nokta purvam tu yd vatsa gopitd saurasamhita | tantre tu
vathule sd tu rahasyam na prakdsitd. Final colophon: it i vdthule kriydpdde saura-
samhitdydm ....
37 Saurasamhita 1.10-12: adrstavigrahdc chdntdc chivdt paramakdranat \
kriydsaktir viniskrdntd paratejasamanvitd || 11 dkdse tu yadd hy ulkd
srstihetor adhomukhi | tasya tejasamdyogdd utpannam tejarupinam || 12
ddityamanisamyogdd vahnih samjdyate yathd | saktitejasamdyogdd bhdnuh
sambhavitd tathd. lOab = Pauskarapdramesvara (as quoted by Bhatta Ramakantha
at Matahgapdramesvaravrtti, Vidydpdda, p. 19, 11.5-6) and Srlkanthlyasamhitd
(ed. in Hanneder 1998, p. 240, v. 1).
38 Saurasamhita 1.15: ddityam tu sivam vindydc chivam ddityam eva ca | ndndtvam
yas tu gaccheta yatnendpi na sidhyati.
39 Siddhdntasdrapaddhati, MS A, f. 3v5-4v2, MS B, f. 4v6-6r2: OH HRAM HRIM
SAH iti suryamantrena krtadehasuddhih krtasakalikaranam arghapdtram
krtvd puspddikam samproksya raktacandanddind surydya mulamantrendrgham
dattvd siiryam pujayet | tatra ganapatigurupujdnantaram OM AM PRABHUTAYA
NAMAH iti pithamadhye, OM AM VIMALAYA NAMAH ity dgneyydm, OH AM
SARAYA NAMAH iti nairrtydm, OM AM ARADHYAYA NAMAH iti vdyavydm,
OM AM PARAMASUKHAYA NAMAH ity aisdnydm, OM AM PADMAYA NAMAH iti
punar madhye, OM RAM DIPTAYAI NAMAH purvadale, OM RIM SUKSMAYAI
NAMAH agnau, OM RUM JAYAYAI NAMAH daksine, OM RUM BHADRAYAI
NAMAH nairrte, OM REM VIBHUTYAI NAMAH vdrune, OM RAIM VIMALAYAI
NAMAH Vdyavye, OM ROM AMOGHAYAI NAMAH saumye, OM RAUM VIDYUTAYAI
NAMAH isane, OM RAM SARVATOMUKHAYAI NAMAH karnikdydm sampujya
visphurdm mudrdm pradarsya raktavarnavartulatejobimbamadhyastham
raktavdsasam svetapadmopari sthitam sarvdbharanabhusitam ekavaktram
-55-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Somasambhupaddhati, composed towards the end of the eleventh century. 40 The
Sambapurana, which teaches the worship of the Sun-god, is also a product, at
least in its later portions, of a Saiva environment. 41
Traces of some form of the vanished tradition of the Sauras may have sur-
vived in the Sakta Saiva literature. For Kashmirian sources know of a Sakta
cult whose deity was the Sun under the name Vira or Viresvara accompanied
by the goddess Bhargasikha, citing as its scripture the Kaula Bhargasikha, also
called Saurabhargasikha, a work for knowledge of whose content we now have
only a few comments in the Kashmirian literature and a few verses quoted in the
same, one of which has also been quoted by the east-Indian Buddhist Ramapala
in his Sekanirdesapahjikd, a fact that demonstrates that this was not a merely
a local, Kashmirian tradition. 42 The probability that this cult reflects a non-
dvibhujam svetapahkajapdnim sarvalaksanasampannam samcintya puspair
anjalim apurya OH HAM KHAM KHASOLKAYA HRAM HRIM SAH SURYAYA NAMAH
ity dvdhanamudrayd samdvdhya sthdpanyd samsthdpya samnidhd<pa>nyd
samnidhdpya nisthurayd nirodhydrghapddydcamaniydni khasolkina dattvd
ahgena mulamantrena sdhgam suryam gandhapuspddibhih sampujya padma-
mudrdm bimbamudram ca pradarsydgneyydm OM AM HRDAYAYA NAMAH,
aisanyam OM ARKAYA SIRASE SVAHA, nairrtyam OM BHUR BHUVAH SVAR *OM
(em. :E B:AIH A) jvalinIsikhayai vausat, vayavyam oh hum kavacaya
HUM, OM BHANUNETRAYA VASAT madhye, purvadicatursu digdalesu OM RAH
ASTRAYA PHAT ity afigdni sampujya hrdayadinam dhenum netrasya govrsam
trasanim astrasya ca pradarsya OM SAM SOMAYA NAMAH purvadalagre, OM
BUM BUDHAYA NAMAH daksine, OM BRM BRHASPATAYE NAMAH pastime, OM
BHAM BHARGAVAYA NAMAH uttare, OM AM ANGARAYA NAMAH dgneye, OM
SAM SANAISCARAYA NAMAH nairrtyam, OM RAM RAHAVE NAMAH vdyavye,
OM KEM KETAVE NAMAH isdnydm iti grahdn sampujya namaskdramudrayd
prarocya gandhapuspadipadhupanaivedyddi khasolkina dattvd padmamudrdm
bimbamudram ca pradarsya ksamasvety uccdrya mantrasamuham upasamhrtya
samhdramudrayd dvddasdntasthitasurydya hrtsthitdya vd niyojayet. ity anena
vidhind visarjya nirmdlyam arghapdtrodakam ca aisanyam TEJASCANDAYA
NAMAH I iti suryapujdvidhih. For some detailed evidence of the dependence of the
Somasambhupaddhati on the Siddhdntasdrapaddhati see SANDERSON 2005a,
p. 360 (fn. 28).
40 Somasambhupaddhati, Pt. I, pp. 68-89.
41 Hazra 1958, pp. 29-108; von Stietencron 1966, pp. 227ff.
42 See Abhinavagupta, Mdlinislokavdrtika 1.161-162b (160c-161b: ydvat tdvad
tad urdhvordhvam sroto yad bhedavarjitam || saurabhargasikhadini tatah
sdstrdni tenire); Tantrdloka 4.255 and 15.280; 32.62: virabhairavasamjneyam
khecari bodhavardhini \ astadhettham varnitd sribhargdstakasikhdkule;
Ksemaraja, Sdmbapancdsikdtikd on brahma prathamam atanu in v. 10a:
prathamam dddv atanu asarlram srlbhargasikhddistanityd akdrapardmarsdtma
viresvarakhyam brahma brhad brmhakam ca param sdktam dhdma and on
v. 21: srlbhargasikhdydm api "naisa varno na vd sabdo na caivdyam kaldtmakah
| kevalah paramdnando viro nityodito ravih \\ ndstam eti na codeti na sdnto na
vikdravdn | sarvabhutdntaracaro bhanur bharga iti smrta" iti; Svacchandod-
dyota, vol.4 (Patala 9), p. 55, 11.15-16; and Ramapala, Sekanirdesapahjikd,
f. 10v2— 3: tad uktam bhargasikhdydm sdkteye tantre na san na cdsat sadasan
-56-
The Saiva Age
Saiva tradition otherwise lost to us is made somewhat greater by the fact that
the names Vlresvara and Bhargasikha are applied in Kashmirian sources, both
Saiva and Smarta, to the Sun-god and his consort at Martandatirtha (modern
Matan), where King Lalitaditya built his majestic temple of the Sun in the mid-
eighth century, 43 a site that has been a major pilgrimage site with its own special
rites for the dead, the Bhargasraddha and Suryabali, down to modern times. 44
However, it is possible that the application of these names merely reflects the
pervasive influence of Sakta Saiva esotericism in the wider Kashmirian commu-
nity in later times.
There are also strong elements of a solar esotericism in the Kalikula of the
Jayadrathayamala and the Krama. 45 It is possible that these too may have been
na tan nobhayojjhitam | durvijheyd hi sdvasthd kim apy etad anuttamam (the
verse has been silently incorporated by Abhinavagupta as Tantrdloka 2.28 [with
anuttaram not anuttamam]): Jayaratha identifies this as a quotation from the
Bhargasikha in his commentary: sribhargasikhdm samvddayati (-viveka, vol. 1,
Ahnika 2, p. 22).
43 Rdjatarahgini 4.192; Krishna Deva in EITA, vol.2, part 1, pp. 363-66; plates
710-721; AIISPL, Accession numbers 20738-20789 and 60003-60051. The
Mdrtdndamdhdtmya, the praise-text of this site, refers to Surya here as Vlresvara
(Bhrhgisasamhitd, p. 15: esa viresvaro devah parah paramakdranam; p. 63:
viresdya namas tubhyam; p. 66: namo virddhiviresa) and makes Bhargasikha the
first of his Saktis (ibid., p. 12, listing Bhargasikha, Bhlma, Bhasvati and Bhanavi).
The Sun is also invoked as Vlresvara in the worship of the Grahas that occurs
among the preliminaries in Saiva rituals in Kashmir; see Kalddiksdpaddhati B
f. 4v9-10: tadbahir grahdh. tatrddau madhye suryah OM RAM AGNAYE OM HRAM
HRIM SAH VIRESVARAYA NAMAH OM HRAM HRIM SAH VIRALAKSMYAI NAMAH. The
Bijas HRAM HRIM SAH are Surya's. His consort is invoked as ViralaksmI here rather
than as Bhargasikha because in the context of the ritual the pair are superimposed
on the principal deities Amrtesvarafbhairava] and his consort Amrtalaksmi.
44 For the Paddhati of these rituals see Karmakanda, vol. 4, pp. 140-205. Here too
the Sun is invoked as Vira/Viresvara (p. 196): vira viresa devesa namas te 'stu
tridhatmaka | mahamartanda varada sarvabhayavaraprada ....
45 See, e.g, Jayadrathayamala 4.4.8-17: sa ravir bhasuradharas tadadhara hi kalika
| sadare vipuladhara sodasoddyotasannibha || 9 sphuradvamanasangrasaravikl
srstikarika | sa ravir devatakaro ravir eka<s> tadakrtih || 10 ravih pradipakaloke
suryamadhyat samutthitah \ raver antargato bhanur bhasayaty akhilam jagat
|| 11 bhanavi kaulini yd sa tatpunjabharitam jagat \ tatrotpannd mahdmantrd
bhairavdstdstayonayah || 12 na prakdse na cdkdse nobhaye nobhayojjhite
sarvdvarananirmukto sarvago bhdti bhdskarah || 13 amrtam prdvrtam yena
racitam ca kuldkulam | sa ravih suryaturydnte bhrdjate raudraddmarah \\ 14
svasamvitparamddityanityoditamaricibhih | bhacakram bhdsitam yena sa vai
kdlanjaro bhavet; CincinTmatasdrasamuccaya, ff. 30v7-21r4 (7.166—172 [Ut-
taragharamnaya (Kalikula) section]): 166 ravih pradipakaloke suryamadhydd
vinirgatah \ raver antargato bhanur bhasayaty akhilam jagat || 167 bhanavi kaulini
yd sa tatpunjabharitam jagat \ tatrotpannd mahdmantrd bhairavdstdstayonayah
|| 168 ravibhdnumayi devi kaulesi kulagahvari \ ksobhdnandavirdme tu
pasyate kulasamtatim \\ 169 mahdvyomdrnave saive bhdnavikundamadhyatah
| tatra pralindh sarve te bhairavdstdstayonayah \\ 170 bhdnavikundamadhye
-57-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
constructed on the basis of Saura notions. But it is also possible that they are an
independent development internal to Saivism. In the absence of properly Saura
literature it is impossible to be sure.
The cult of the Sun-god, then, appears to have survived in India after the
rise of the Saivism only in heavily Saivized Puranic reflexes or subordinated in
a Saivized form within the Saiddhantika cult of Siva, and, perhaps, in some ele-
ments within the Sakta Saiva tradition. Only in the Majapahit kingdom of East
Java do we hear of the survival of adherents of a distinct Saura denomination.
There a royal charter of c. 1350 tells us that a board of six learned men appointed
to adjudicate law suits included two adherents of this tradition. 46
The Decline of Vaisnavism and the Rise of the Tantric Pancaratra
Following Saiva Models
Royal preference for Vaisnavism, expressed in inscriptions by the epithets
atyantabhagavadbhaktah, paramabhagavatah, or paramavaisnavah, all mean-
ing 'entirely devoted to Visnu', is mostly confined to the period from the fourth
century to the seventh. The Bhagavata faith was adopted and promoted by
the Guptas from the first half of the fourth century through to the end of the
fifth, 47 and it was probably under their influence that it gained a foothold in
the fifth century among the Saiva Vakataka rulers of Nandivardhana in east-
ern Vidarbha, through the marriage in the last decade of the fourth century of
the Vakataka Rudrasena II to Prabhavatigupta, the daughter of the parama-
bhagavatah Gupta emperor Candragupta II (c. 380-474). 48 Gupta influence may
also explain the appearance of the Bhagavata faith at the end of the fourth cen-
tu layacakram svabhdvatah | villne svasvabhdvdkhye tatsvabhdvodayam tatah
|| 171 bhdvdbhdvadvayottirnd yd virauty asaririni \ sd cidd nihsvabhdvasthd
surydkuld krsodari || 172 tatsvarupoditam cakram cidbhdnvarkagatisthitam
pratibimbam ivdbhdti visvagrdsaikalampatam; Kdlikulakramasadbhdva 2.37cd:
bhdskarair dvidasair yuktd sikhd bhargasya cottamd; Eraka, Kramastotra, quoted
in Tantrdlokaviveka on 4.165c-167: astoditadvddasabhdnubhdji yasydm gatd
bhargasikhd sikheva | prasdntadhdmni dyutindsam eti tarn naumy anantdm
paramdrkakdllm. On the literature of the Kashmirian Kalikula see SANDERSON
2007a, pp. 250-370.
46 See here p. 120.
47 CII 3:8, 11.1-2: paramabhdgavatamahdrdjddhirdjasrikumdragupta-; 11.20-23:
paramabhdgavato mahdrdjddhirdjasricandraguptas tasya puttras tatpdddnu-
ddhydto mahddevydm dhruvadevydm utpannah paramabhdgavato mahdrdjddhi-
rdjasrlkumdraguptas tasya puttras tatpdddnuddhydtah paramabhdgavato mahd-
rdjddhirdjasriskandaguptah .
48 On Saivism and Vaisnavism among the Vakatakas of Nandivardhana and the influ-
ence of the Vaisnava Prabhavatigupta on the religion of this dynasty see Barker
1997.
-58-
The Saiva Age
tury among the Salarikayana kings of Verigipura in Andhra. The earlier kings of
this dynasty were devotees of Siva in keeping with the norm in this region. But
Nandivarman II, a younger contemporary of Candragupta II, is styled parama-
bhdgavatah} 9 Other early Vaisnava kings are the Matharas of Kalihga, 50 the
Traikutakas of Nasik, Korikana, and Lata, 51 the Sarabhapuriyas of Daksina Ko-
sala, 52 and the Parivrajaka Maharajas of Dabhalarajya (Dahala) in the fifth and
sixth centuries, 53 perhaps the early Maukharis of Kanyakubja before the reign of
Isanavarman (c. 550-76), 54 the Nalas of western Orissa (c. 450+-700), 55 the early
Calukyas of Vatapi (Badami) in the sixth and early seventh century, 56 and the
early Pallavas of Kanci up to and including Simhavisnu II (c. 550-610). 57 After
Pulakesin II and Simhavisnu both the Calukyas and Pallavas were Saivas, 58 as
49 El 42:11, 11.7—9: bhagavaccitra<rathasvdmya>nuddhydto . . . paramabhdgavatas
sdlahkdyanavamsaprabhavo vijayavarmmd. For this hypothesis of Gupta influ-
ence, which rests on slenderer evidence than that of Gupta influence on the
Vakatakas, see S. Sankaranarayanan in EI 42:11, p. 92.
50 Tripathy 1997:2: bhagavatsvdmindrdyanapdddnudhydtah; 3: ndrdyanasvdminah
pddabhaktah paramadaivata<h>.
51 MlRASHl, CII 4i, p. xliv; CII 4i:8, 11. 1-2: bhagavatpddakarmmakaro . . . mahdrdja-
dahrasena<h>; CII 4i:9, 11. 1-2, 7-8: bhagavatpddakarmmakarah . . . mahdrdja-
vydghrasena<h>.
52 EI 31:35, 11. 1-2; EI 22:6, 11. 3-4; EI 31:18, 1. 3.
53 EI 8:28.
54 Of his predecessors Harivarman, Adityavarman, and Isvaravarman, we know that
the second at least was paramabhdgavatah.
55 EI 21:24 (Podagadh inscription of the Nala Skandavarman, fifth century) and EI
26:3 (Rajim stome inscription of the Nala Vilasatuhga, c. 700); Singh 1994, pp. 89-
90.
56 Kirtivarman I (r. 566-597) completed the Visnu cave-temple at Vatapi. His suc-
cessor Mahgalisvara-Ranavikranta (r. 597-608) is styled paramabhdgavatah in an
inscription in the Vaisnava cave 3 at Badami recording the completion of the tem-
ple, the installation of the Visnu, and the granting of a village (Fleet in Burgess
1877, p. 363, 11. 5-10; and Fleet 1881 [lithograph]): srimahgalisvararanavikrantah
. . . paramabhdgavato *layanam (corr. Fleet :layano Ep.) mahdvisnugrham
. . . krtvd On the Vaisnavism of the early Calukyas before Vikramaditya I (654-
c. 681) see Bolon 1979, pp. 254-256.
57 Carudevi, wife of Buddhavarman son of Skandavarman I (c. 330-350) (Maha-
LINGAM 1988:4, 11. 7-9: gift of land to a temple of Narayana); Simhavarman
II, c. 436- 477 (MAHALINGAM 1988:8, 11. 15-17: paramabhdgavatah); Yu-
varaja Visnugopa, mid-fifth century (MAHALINGAM 1988:6: 11. 9-17; MAHALINGAM
1988:7, 11. 18-21: paramabhdgavatah); Nandivarman I, c. 495-520 (MAHALINGAM
1988:10, 11.9-10: paramabhdgavatah); Buddhavarman, father of Kumaravisnu
III (MAHALINGAM 1988:11, 11.6-7: bhagavadbhaktisambhavitasarvakalyanasya);
Kumaravisnu III c. 520- 540 (MAHALINGAM 1988:11, 11. 12-14: paramabhdgava-
tah); Simhavarman III c. 540- 550 (MAHALINGAM 1988:12, 11. 14-18: paramabhd-
gavatah); Simhavisnu c. 550- 610 (MAHALINGAM 1988:76: bhaktydrddhitavisnuh
simhavisnuh) .
58 For the Saivism of Calukya Pulakesin II's successors Vikramaditya I (654-c. 681),
Vinayaditya I (681-696), Vijayaditya (696-733), Vikramaditya II (733-744), and
-59-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
were the later Maukharis. 59
After the seventh century royal Vaisnavism is sporadic, with the prominent
exception of the Karkotas of Kashmir (c. 625-855/6). The conclusion that this
dynasty was Vaisnava is not derived from our study of inscriptions, because
extremely few have survived the centuries of Islamic rule in Kashmir, which
began in 1339 and ended in 1819. It rests primarily on the testimony of the
Rajatarangini of the Kashmirian historian Kalhana, who did have access
to, and did utilize, the local epigraphic record of religious foundations and
dynastic history 60 From this work we can see that when a king of this dynasty
established and enshrined a deity, generally with his own name (svanamna),
it was always a Visnu (-svamin, -kesava), though sometimes images of the
Sun-god or the Buddha were enshrined in addition. These royal Visnus are
the Durlabhasvamin (4.6) of Durlabhavardhana (r. c. 626-662), the Tribhu-
vanasvamin (4.78) of Candrapida (r.c. 712-720/1), the Muktasvamin (4.188) of
Lalitaditya-Muktapida (725-761/2), his silver Parihasakesava at his new town
Parihasapura (4.195, 202), his golden Muktakesava (4.196, 201), and a Visnu
at his new town Darpitapura (4.183), the Vipulakesava (4.484) of Jayapida (r.
c. 773/4-804/5), and his Caturatmakesava and Anantasayana Visnu at his new
town Jayapura (4.508), the Amrtakesava established after his death by his
mother Amrtaprabha to secure the rescue from hell that the sins of his later
life had made his certain destiny (4.659), and the Visnus established by each of
the five uncles of Cippatajayapida, who ran the country for thirty-seven years
during the reign of the puppet king Ajitapida (r.c. 813/4-850/1): Utpalasvamin
Kirtivarman II (744-c. 753/757) and their construction of the Siva temples at
Pattadakal and Alampur see EI 32:21, ARE 159 of 1959-60, EI 35:16 and 3:1; and
the excellent overview in Dagens 1984, vol. 1, pp. 20-24.
59 On the Saiva affiliation of the Maukharis Isanavarman, Sarvavarman, and Avanti-
varman see Barker and Isaacson 2004, pp. 32-33; Thaplyal 1985: B 2, 11. 19-
20; B 3, 11. 7-8; B 5, 11. 7-8. Another lineage that may have been Vaisnava up
to the early seventh century before turning to Saivism is that of the Varmans of
Pragjyotisa. Bhutivarman of that line was paramabhagavatah according to his
Badagariga rock inscription of 553/4 (EI 27:5, 11.1-2): sri paramadaivataparama-
bhagavatamaharajadhirajasvamedhajdjin[am] srlbhutivarmadevapadanam. But
his great-great-grandson, Bhaskaravarman (r. c. 600-50), has been described in
his Dubi copper-plate inscription as having revived Saivism; see SlRCAR 1983a:l,
11. 109-110): laksmih ksibavilasa[nita]vidhina samskrtya ca svikrtd bhuyo yena ma-
hesvarasrayanayah sphdyipratdpdrcisd.
60 Rajatarangini 1.15: drstais ca purvabhubhartrpratistha*vastusasanaih
(conj. : vastusasanaih Ed.) | prasastipattaih sastrais ca santo 'sesabhramaklamah
'I have removed all the troublesome errors [of my predecessors] by consulting
in person the charters that record the [temples and otherl edifices founded and
consecrated (-pratisthavastu-) by the kings of the past, [their] panegyric donative
inscriptions, and works of scholarship'.
-60-
The Saiva Age
(4.695ab), Padmasvamin (4.695cd), Dharmasvamin (4.697ab), Kalyanasvamin
(6.697cd), and Mammasvamin (4.698-699).
Kalhana reports only one Saiva foundation by a king of this dynasty, and this
is a special case. For it was not the creation of a new Siva with the king's name,
but merely the building by Lalitaditya of a new stone temple to house the ancient
Siva Jyesthesvara at the site of Siva Bhutesvara (4.190) in the context of offer-
ings to clear his debt to the latter incurred when he had appropriated the wealth
of this temple to finance his military campaigns (4.189). Devotion to Visnu was
also the preference of Avantivarman (r. 855/6-883), the first king of the next dy-
nasty, and in keeping with his personal faith he installed an Avantisvamin before
his consecration. But thereafter he showed himself a Saiva in unison with the
faith of his powerful minister Sura, establishing a Siva Avantisvara and mak-
ing donations to the Sivas of the national Siva-temples, confessing to Sura his
long-hidden devotion to Visnu only at death's door (5.43, 123-125). 61
Vaisnavism gained ground again only towards the end of our period, and in
subsequent centuries. 62 Before that happened, while it remained in the shadow
of Saivism, it gave rise to a new literature of scriptural texts known collectively
as the Pancaratra, that was probably composed in and around Kashmir. A form
of Vaisnavism bearing this name is already mentioned in the Mahabharata. &z
It is very probable, therefore, that it was in existence well before the Saiva
Mantramarga. However, there is no evidence that this early Pancaratra had
a Tantric ritual system of the kind that characterizes the Samhitas of the sur-
viving corpus of Pancaratrika scripture. It is highly probable in my view that
those texts are rather the product of a thorough reformation in which Vaisnavas
followed the example of the already flourishing Saiva Mantramarga in order to
provide themselves with a substantially new ritual system that would enable
them to compete more effectively with their rivals. 64
61 For the remains of Avantivarman's Avantisvamin and Avantisvara temples, both
built at Avantipura, see Krishna Deva in EITA vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 368-373; plates
734-738 and 740-757.
62 Vaisnavas who left their mark in the domains of the major Sastras, belles-lettres,
and literary theory are few during our centuries. The shift in the fortunes of
Vaisnavism is marked by the emergence of such influential religious leaders as
Ramanuja (d. 1137), Madhva (probably 1238-1317), Nimbarka (thirteenth cen-
tury), Visnusvamin (thirteenth century?), Vallabha, and Caitanya (both late fif-
teenth century). For an excellent survey of the history of these Vaisnava traditions
see Colas 2003.
63 Mahabharata 12.322.24; 12. 326.100; 12.360.76;12.337.1; 12.370.59, 63, and 67.
64 It was this tradition that was subsequently adapted in South India as the basis of
texts such as the Isvarasamhita, Padmasamhita, and Paramesvarasamhita, whose
purpose, absent in the earlier Samhitas, was to provide scriptural authority for a
Pancaratrika system of temple-worship.
-61-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
I am led to this conclusion by the convergence of various considerations.
Firstly, the ritual system prescribed in the Pancaratra scriptures is remarkably
close to that of the Saiva Mantramarga in its repertoire, consisting principally
of Mandala initiation (diksd), regular worship comprising Nyasa, Puja, Japa
and Homa, the periodic ritual of pavitrdropanam, special rites of Mantra-
propitiation (mantrdrddhanam), and image-installation (pratisthd); and this
proximity extends into the minute details of the procedures of these rituals and
even to the production of Vaisnava versions of such eminently Saiva rites as the
vetdlasddhanam. 65
Secondly, I see no evidence that any of the surviving Pancaratra texts goes
back as far the Saiva texts that they so closely resemble. Seven can be shown
to be relatively old because they have been cited by authors of the tenth cen-
tury or have come down to us in early Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts. These
are the Svdyambhuvapancardtra, the Devdmrtrapancardtra, the Vdsudevakalpa
of the Mahdlaksmlsamhitd, the Jayottara, the Jaydkhya, the Sdtvata, and the
Pauskara. Now, of these, three, namely the Jayottara, the Jaydkhya, and the
Sdtvata, are very unlikely to have been produced before the ninth century, that
is to say, at a time when the Saiva Mantramarga had been flourishing under
widespread royal patronage for at least two centuries and had been existence in
some form by a time no later than the middle of the sixth and perhaps as early as
the middle of the fifth. For all three focus on the worship of a form of Vasudeva,
called Vaikuntha in the Jaydkhya and Jayottara and Saktyatman or Saktisa in
the Sdtvatasamhitd, in which the principal anthropomorphic face is flanked by
the faces of Narasimha and Varaha, with a fourth face, that of the sage Kapila,
at the rear. 66 Surviving stone and bronze images of this deity are numerous,
but they are three-faced, lacking the face of Kapila at the rear, until the ninth
century 67
Thirdly, these early Pancaratra texts show clear signs of having drawn on
Saiva sources. This is particularly obvious in the Svdyambhuvapancardtra, to
which we have access in a single, incomplete Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript
bearing a date of transcription that falls in A.D. 1026. 68 The principal Mantra of
65 A vetdlasddhanam is taught in Jayottara 8.23-26b.
66 Jaydkhyasamhitd 6.73c-64 (JS) (=Jayottara 1.20 [J]): dhydyec caturbhujam
*vipra (JS :devam J) sahkhacakragadddharam || caturvaktram sunayanam
sukdntam padmapdninam | vaikuntham *narasimhdsyam (JS:ndrasimham ca
J) vdrdham kapUdnanam; Sdtvatasamhitd 12.9, 14c-15: saktlso 'py atha
samcintyah pundarlkanibheksanah | icchdrupadharas caiva saumyah praha-
sitdnanah \\ . . . ndrasimhena vaktrena bhavabhitivighdtakrt \\pusndti sarvabhutdni
vdrdhendmrtdtmand \ kurute pascimasthena kdpUenopasamhrtim.
67 See Sanderson 2005b, pp. 283-284, drawing on Siudmak 1994.
68 Svdyambhuvapancardtra, exposure llb3: samvat 147 dsddhasukla ekddasydm
-62-
The Saiva Age
this text, which may well be the oldest of the seven, is the well-known Vaisnava
Dvadasaksara OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA NAMAH. But the principal
among its ancillary Mantras are five that it calls the Brahmas. These are mani-
festly adapted from the venerable Saiva Mantras of that name. 69
sukradine +++ naksatre Hikhitam (corr. : liksatam Cod.) iti 'Copied on Friday, un-
der the asterism +++, on the eleventh Tithi of the bright half of the month Asadha
in the [expired] year 147'. That the unstated era of this date is the Newari,
which began on 20 October, 879, is confirmed by palaeographical comparison with
other Nepalese manuscripts of the early eleventh century. I am very grateful
to Dr. Diwakar Acharya for providing me with a digital copy of this manuscript
and his own transcription, and also for the information that a second manus-
ript of this text photographed by the NGMPP (B 237/16) is merely a copy of the
first. The title Svayambhuvapancardtra appears nowhere in the surviving folios
but is reconstructed here from the analytic equivalent seen in the colophon of the
eighth Adhyaya: iti pahcardtre *svdyambhuve (corr. : svayambhuve Cod.) astamo
<'>dhydya<h>. The other surviving Adhyaya colophons refer to the work simply
as pancaratram or pancaratram mahajnanam . The meaning is 'the Pancaratra
of the Self-born', i.e. 'the Pancaratra taught to Brahma'. The text is indeed
instruction given in response to questions posed by Brahma. The instructor is
Siva/Isvara. Exposure 3al-2 (the beginning): OM NAMO BHAGAVATE VASUDEVAYA
|| . . .pranipatya haram deva<m> . . . stutvd ndmasahasrena brahma vacanam
abravlt; exposure 4a2-3: *brahmano vacanam (em.:brahmacanam Cod.) srutvd
Tsvara<h> *pratyabhdsata (em. -.pratyubhdsyate Cod.) | srnu brahma<n> prayat-
nena visno<h> sthdpanam uttamam | pancardtramahdjndnam sarvasdfstresu] cot-
tamam.
The Devdmrtapancardtra, which is closely related textually to the
Svayambhuvapancardtra and is probably dependent on it, survives in a sin-
gle, undated Nepalese manuscript, probably of the twelfth century. Here too I am
indebted to Dr. Diwakar Acharya, who provided me with a transcript that he has
prepared.
69 The five Vaisnava Brahmas are as follows (Svayambhuvapancardtra, ex-
posure 10al-2): om narenarenarannatha nara yasman narottama
prathamabrahmd \ OM YAJNAYA NAMO YANAYA DHARMAYA NAMAH *PUNYAYA
(corr. : PUNYAYA Cod.) NAMAH I VRATAYA NAMAH | NIYAMAYA NAMAH |
MARGANUSARINE NAMAH dvitlyabrahmd \ OM KALEBHYO *'THA KALEBHYAH
(corr. : THA KALABHYA Cod.) KALAKALANTAREBHYAS CA SARVVATA [+ +
+ + + naJmas te rudrarudrebhyah trtlya brahma \ om tatsamyogaya
VIDMAHE HRSIKESAYA *DHIMAHI (corr. : DHITMAHE Cod.) TAN NO *VISNUH
(corr. :VISNU Cod.) PRACODAYAT caturthabrahmd \ RODHAKA SARVVAVIDYANAM
DEVADANAVADHIPATI MAHAPURUSA NAMO STU TE pahca<ma>brahmd . The four
Brahmas after the first are evidently modelled on the Saiva Brahmas in the
order (1) Vamadeva (vamadevaya namo jyesthaya namo rudraya namah
KALAYA NAMAH KALAVIKARANAYA NAMO BALAVIKARANAYA NAMO BALAPRA-
MATHANAYA NAMAH SARVABHUTADAMANAYA NAMO MANONMANAYA NAMAH), (2)
Aghora (aghorebhyo 'tha ghorebhyo ghoraghoratarebhyas ca sarvatah
SARVA SARVEBHYO NAMAS TE RUDRARUPEBHYAH), (3) Tatpurusa (TATPURUSAYA
VIDMAHE MAHADEVAYA DHIMAHI TAN NO RUDRAH PRACODAYAT), and (4) Isana
(ISANAH SARVAVIDYANAM ISVARAH SARVABHUTANAM BRAHMANO 'DHIPATIR
brahma sivo me 'stu sada sivah). The first Brahma has nothing in common
with the remaining Saiva Brahma, that of Sadyojata.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Saiva prototypes are already found in the Atimarga of the Pancarthika
Pasupatas. Indeed they constitute the whole Mantra-system of that tradition.
However, it is clear that the Svayambhuvapancaratra has drawn them from the
later tradition of the Mantramarga, because it goes on to teach the imposition on
to the worshipper's body of the thirty-eight parts of these Mantras (kalanyasah),
a Mantramargic feature, and under names specific to one Mantramargic tradi-
tion, that of the Svacchandatantra, the principal scripture of the Mantrapitha. 70
The Svayambhuvapancaratra survives only in this Nepalese manuscript.
One might object, therefore, that it may be no more than a local oddity unrep-
resentative of the mainstream tradition. That it is not can be argued, of course,
only through evidence that the text was more widely known in the form of ref-
erences to it, citations from it, or accounts of its contents in other works. This
is a difficult test to apply in the case of the early Pancaratrika literature, since
in stark contrast to the case of the Saiva scriptures, Pancaratrika commentarial
works in which we could seek such evidence are almost completely absent un-
til a much later period among the Srivaisnavas of the South, when the range
of relevant sources had changed greatly. The only exception is the Spandapra-
dipika of the Kashmirian Bhagavatotpala, probably of the tenth century 71 But
that, though it cites a number of early Pancaratrika scriptural sources, does not
cite this. However, there is evidence in a Saiva source that this Pancaratrika
text was known and followed outside Nepal. For I propose that it is identi-
cal with the Svayambhupancaratra that Somasambhu cites as his authority in
his account of the procedures for the installation of an image of Visnu in the
KriyakandakramavalT, 72 the highly influential work on the Saiddhantika Saiva
70 Ibid., exposure 10a3-5: kaldnydsam caturthan tu | srsti vrrddhi mati laksmT medhd
kdnti svadhd sthitd | rajo raksd rati pdlyd kdmd trsnd mati jnayd | avidhi kdya
tdta ca bhrdmam mohani tathd | + + + + + + + sthdh ksudhd mrtyu jvarabhayd
| nirvitis ca pratisthd ca | sdnti vidyd tathaiva ca | tard sutdrd taranl tdrayanti
svatdranT | astatrihsa*kalopeta (em. -.kaldpetah Cod.) deary ah *samuddhrtah
(corr. : samuddhrtdh Cod.). Cf., to emend the names, Svacchandatantra 1.53-59b
USvacchandalalitabhairava IFI T. 507, p. 6; NAK MS 1-224, f.3v4-4rl, the latter
with different kaldh of Isana) and Netratantra 22.26-34.
71 I am aware of no reference to the Spandapradipikd or its author in any dated work.
It is not possible, therefore, to fix a date before which this work must have been
written, at least not a date earlier than that of its manuscripts. However, the fact
that it quotes extensively from the Sakta Saiva literature current in Kashmir up to
and including the Isvarapratyabhijndkdrikd of Utpaladeva (fl. c. 925-975) but not
from any of the works of Abhinavagupta (fl. c. 975-1025) makes it unlikely that its
author wrote after the latter.
72 Verse 4.12ab in Brunner's edition (Somasambhupaddhati, Pt. 4, p. 297) (B),
= verse 1668cd in the KSTS edition (Karmakdndakramdvali) (K), and folio
71v2-3 in the Cambridge MS (KriyakandakramavalT) (C): svayambhu*pahcardtre
(NK: pdncardtre B) ca sarvam etad udiritam.
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The Saiva Age
rituals 73 that he composed in the eleventh century, probably in 1073, 74 while he
held the office of abbot in the kingdom of the Kalacuris of Tripuri at the illus-
trious Saiddhantika monastery of Golagi (golaglmathah), in the Rewa District of
Madhya Pradesh. 75
My conclusion that Somasambhu was referring to our Svayambhuvapanca-
rdtra does not rest solely on the synonymity of the titles, both meaning 'The
Pancaratra taught to Brahma', but also on the fact that the brief but detailed
account of the ritual that Somasambhu attributes to the Svayambhupancaratra
corresponds in its particulars to the coverage of the same topic found in the
seventh Adhyaya of the text in our manuscript. I cannot demonstrate this
in full detail here. But it should suffice to point out that the system that
Somasambhu attributes to his Svayambhupancaratra features an unusual
arrangement of three circuits of Mantra-deities that agrees exactly with that
of our Svayambhuvapancaratra manuscript: nine on a lotus with eight petals
(one at the centre and one on each of the petals), twelve in a circle with that
lotus at its centre, and eight forming a circuit enclosing the whole. The twelve
are the Visnumurtis, embodying each of the twelve syllables of the root-Mantra
(mulamantrah); the outer eight are the eight weapons (astrani) held by the
presiding deity; and the nine of the innermost circuit (garbhavaranam) are a
set of ancillary Mantras: the Hrdaya at the centre surrounded by the Siras (E),
the Sikha (S), the Kavaca (W), the Astra (N), the Gayatri (SE), the Savitri (NE),
the Netra (SW), and the Pirigalastra (NW). 76 Since this arrangement is highly
73 Of the various Paddhatis on the Saiddhantika rituals that have come down to us
Somasambhu's was probably the most influential. Its impact can be seen in the
major later works of this type, such as the Kriydkramadyotikd of Aghorasiva, the
Jndnaratndvali of Jnanasiva, and the Siddhdntasekhara of Visvanatha, and in the
fact that manuscripts of the text have survived throughout the subcontinent, in
Kashmir, Nepal, and the South. There is also the fact that it alone achieved the
distinction of being stripped of its human authorship to be passed off as scripture.
For it was incorporated almost in its entirety in the Agnipurdna (SANDERSON in
Brunner 1998, p. lix, fn. 81); and much of it was taken over in the late south-Indian
Saiddhantika scriptures Cintyavisvasdddkhya and Uttarakdmika (Brunner 1998,
p. lviii-lix).
74 For a discussion of the date of Somasambhu's Paddhati see Sanderson 2007a,
pp. 420-421, footnote 640.
75 For the name Golagi and the location of the monastery see here p. 264.
76 The relevant passage in the Svayambhuvapancaratra (exposure 5b3-5a2) is as fol-
lows (with some restorations and emendations following the readings of a closely re-
lated passage in the eleventh Adhyaya of the Devdmrtapancardtra [D]): *yajanam
(em. D and here, exposure 8a3 : ++ nam Cod.) sampravaksydmi *divyam (D :devam
Cod.) ndrdyanasya *tu (D:tuh Cod.) | tribhir dvaranaih ' k kdryam (em. :kdya
Cod. :kdrd D) durlabham *tu surdsuraih (D :sasurdsuram Cod.) | madhye cakram
*pratisthdpyam (em. : pratisthdydm Cod. ipratisthdpya D) *dvddasdram (corr. [D:
arai<r> dvddasabhir yutam]:dvddasdna Cod. ) susobhanam | tanmadhye ka-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
unusual, especially in its set of nine ancillaries, it is extremely unlikely that
Somasambhu's Svayambhupancaratra is not the Svayambhuvapancaratra of
the Nepalese manuscript. Since Somasambhu was a major figure and writing
far from Nepal for a pan-Indian audience there are no grounds for considering
this tradition to be a Nepalese aberration.
Furthermore, while the ritual systems taught in the scriptures of the
Pancaratra are generally coherent, no less so than those of the Saivas, the texts
retain elements that make sense in the Saiva world but not in the Vaisnava;
malam proktam patrdstakasakarnikam | sarvdtmd *sakalo (em. :sakald Cod.) *devo
(corr. : deva Cod.) *divyamdldsasamanvitah (conj. : divyamdldsandtanah Cod.) |
sriyd madhye tu hrdayam humkdrena tu pujayet | sira<h> purvadale *dadydd
daksine tu sikham (D:da + + + + + + + m Cod.) nyaset | pastime kavacam *dadydd
(corr. : dadydv Cod.) astrah caivottarena tu | gdyatry dgneyadig*bhdge (corr. : bhdga
Cod.) savitrlm Tsvare svayam | *netrah (corr. : netrdh Cod.) caiva tu *nairrtydm
(corr. : nairitydm Cod.) pihgalastram tu *vdyave (corr. : vdyavet Cod.) | guhydd
guhyataram guhyam garbhavaranam uttamam | *dvitlyam (corr. -.dvitiydm Cod.)
*sampravaksyami (corr. : sampravaksyamih Cod.) visnu*murtlh (corr. :murtti Cod.)
prapujayet | dvadasare tathd cakre nyase<d> dvadasa murtayah | *kesavam tu are
purve omkarena (D:ke ++++++++++ rena Cod.) tu pujayet \ dvitiyan tu nakdrena
*pujya (conj. :j 'hey 'dm Cod.) ndrdyanan Hatha (corr. : tathdh Cod.) | trtlyam
mddhavam *pujya (em. : pujyam Cod.) mokdrena *mahdtmand (D : mahdtmanah
Cod.) | bhakdrdksaradevena govindan tu *caturthakam (D : caturthakaih Cod.) |
pancaman tu gakdrena visnu<m> caiva prapujayet \ vakdraksaradevena sasthe
vai madhusudanam \ saptame vdmanah *caiva (corr. : caivah Cod.) tekdrena
tu pujayeft] | *yajed vdkdrabljena (conj.:+j . dvdrabljena Cod.) astame tu
Hrivikramam (corr. -.trivikramah Cod.) | srldharan navamah caiva sukdrena
tu pujayet | dasame tu hrslkesam dekdrena tu pujayet | ekddase tu *vdkdre
(conj. : vdkdra Cod.) padmandbham *prabhum (corr. prabhu Cod.) viduh
dvddase <tu> bhakdrena ndmnd ddmodaram smrtam | *dvitiydvaranam khydtam
(D : dvitlydvarana khydtam Cod.) Hrtlye 'strdni (D:trtiyena strdni Cod.) vinyaset
| sahkha<m> caiva nyase<t> *purve (em. \purvvam Cod.) *dgneyydm tu gaddm
nyaset (D:dgneyd +++++ Cod.) | *daksinena (corr. : + ksinena Cod.) bhave<c>
cakram khadgam *nairrtyagocare (corr. : nairityagocaret Cod.) | padma<m>
pascimato vidyd<d> vdyavydm tu hala<m> nyaset | musala<m> *cottarato (em.
in spite of the metre :cottato Cod. D) dadydd Tsdnyd<m> *sdrhga (corr. : sdrdhga
Cod.) vinyaset \ etad guhyataram *ydgam (corr. :ydgdm Cod.) durlabham para-
mam padam. Somasambhu sets out the same material in his Paddhati in 4.27c-33
of Brunner's edition, =vv. 1681c-1686 in the Kashmirian edition, and f. 72r2-7
in the Cambridge manuscript (the last two sources offer no significant variants
but only minor errors and corruptions that I have not recorded here): vinyasya
cdditas cakram dvddasdram subhdsvaram || 28 tasya madhye punar deyam pad-
mam astadalam tatah \ hrnmantram karnikdydm ca sirah purvadale tatah \\ 29
sikham ca daksine patre pastime kavacam nyaset | astram uttarato nyasya gdyatrim
agnipatrake || 30 savitrlm Tsapatre ca netram ca nairrte dale | tatas ca vdyupatre
ca pihgalastram viniksipet || 31 garbhavaranam ity uktam adhundvarandntaram |
dvadasare ca cakre 'smin kesavddydn yathdkramam \\ 32 pranavddyair yathdkdram
uktapurvaih svandmabhih | prdgdditas ca vinyasya khadgam gaddm anantaram ||
33 cakram sahkham ca padmam ca halam ca musalam tatah | sdrhgam ca vinyased
evam trtiydvaranam bhavet.
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The Saiva Age
and in some cases we find a degree of awkwardness that is consistent only with
a clumsy attempt to adapt Saiva materials to their new context.
A striking example of this can be seen in the Jayakhya. When detailing the
process of initation it describes the pdsasutram, the cord which is ritually trans-
formed into a substitute of the subtle body of the candidate, containing all the
reality-levels along its length, to be used in the process of rendering the past ac-
tions that bind his soul incapable of giving rise to future consequences at any of
these levels. In the course of this description we find some elements alien to the
Vaisnava tradition that derive, with minimal distortion, from the Saiva doctrinal
context. Thus it speaks of this cord as embodying kald, avidyd, and ragah, and,
shortly afterwards, as coloured by ragah, illuminated by avidyd, circumscribed
by kdlah, and rendered non-pervasive by niyatih. 11 Now the first three of these
factors {ragah, avidyd, and kald) are the Saiva Mantramarga's three 'shrouds'
77
The only edition of the Jayakhya (Ed.), that of KRISHNAMACHARYYA, was based
on south-Indian manuscripts of relatively recent date. I re-edit the text of the
passage to which I am referring, 16.128c-134 [numeration of Ed.], with the help
of the testimony of a Nepalese paper manuscript of 1454/5 (N), ff. 35v7-36r4,
and a lemma in a Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript of 1187/8 of the Jndnalaksmi
of Sadhaka Candradatta, pupil of Ekayanacarya Narayanagarbha (C): susitam
sutram adaya laksalaktakabhavitam || 129 sammukham cotthitam sisyam
*samapadasirodharam (corr. [=C] : semapadasirodharam N : samapadasironnatam
Ed.) | krtvahgusthadvayasyagrat samarabhya *dvijottama (Ed. : dvijottamah
N) || 130 yavac chikhavasanam tu sutra*mdnam (Ed. : mana N) samaharet
| kuryad *ekagunam (Ed. : vekagunam N) tad *vai (Ed. :ve N) dvigunam
trigunam tu va || 131 *tris tris tad (conj. : tristrismad N -.tritristha Ed.)
gunitam vatha *pancavimsatidhdthava (N -.pahcavimsati cathava Ed.) | avyak-
talihgasutram tu Had ragavidyakalatmakam (em. : tadrdgrdvidydkaldtmakam
N :pragavidyakalatmakam Ed.) || 132 *nityam jadam (Ed. :nityajade N)
vyapakam ca tasmin visvam pratisthitam | Hatraivastam vrajed (corr. : tatrevastam
vrajed N -.tatraptam ayate ~Ed.:tatrastam ayate conj. KRISHNAMACHARYYA)
bhuyas tasmad eva pravartate \\ 133 tatrastham cintayet sarvdra abhinnam
tattvapaddhatim | Hattvodbhavas (N :tatrodbhavas Ed.) tu ye vipra *pasa
(em. :pasa Ed. : tesam Ed.) bandhatmaka drdhah || 134 ragena rahjitas *citra
(Ed : cimta N) avidyasampradlpitah | vicchinnas caiva kalena *niyatyavyapakas
(conj. : niyatavyapakas N Ed.) tatha 'O best of brahmins, after taking up a perfectly
white cord soaked [red] with lac and making the candidate stand facing him with
his feet together and his head upright, he should measure out [a length of] the cord
from the tip of his two big toes to his hair-tuft. He may make [the cord of this
length] single, double, triple, thrice triple, or twenty-fivefold. He should meditate
upon the entire sequence of Tattvas as residing undivided therein. This thread,
[which embodies] the subtle body [of the candidate], comprises Raga, Avidya, and
Kala (ragavidyakalatmakam). It is eternal, unconscious, and pervasive. The whole
universe is grounded in it. Into it it disappears again and from it alone it comes
forth. These binding cords are the firm fetters [of the soul]. They arise, O brahmin,
from the Tattvas. They are coloured because they have been dyed with [the red-
ness of] Raga. They are illuminated by Avidya, circumscribed by Kala, and made
non-pervasive by Niyati'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
{kancukani), except that there the second is generally termed vidyd rather than
avidya; and the other two factors, kdlah and niyatih join these three to form the
group of five reality-levels (tattvdni) ranked immediately below mdydtattvam,
the upper limit and source of the 'impure cosmos' (asuddho 'dhvd), and immedi-
ately above the individual soul (purusah), constituting the factors that enable
the soul to undergo embodiment in that impure world. 78 Even the substitu-
tion of avidya for the Saivas' vidyd does nothing to dilute the obviously Saiva
character of the set, since vidyd in that context is indeed a form of nescience
(avidya), being understood as the limited power of knowledge that characterizes
bound souls, enabling them to cognize the objects presented by the faculties, as
opposed to the pure, all-encompassing knowledge (suddhavidya) that operates
above mdydtattvam; and this understanding is maintained in the passage in the
Jaydkhya, because it speaks of the bonds as being 'illuminated' by avidya. Indeed
the line in which the bonds are said to be 'coloured by ragah and illuminated by
avidya' unmistakeably echoes loci classici on the functions of ragah and vidyd in
the Mantramarga's scriptures. 79
The Sdtvata and the Pauskara are probably the latest of these early texts.
They are certainly the most polished and the most sophisticated in language.
Unsurprisingly, these more mature products of the tradition contain no glar-
ingly obvious examples that I can see of imperfectly assimilated Saiva material.
Nonetheless, there are parallels in which the Saiva version seems more likely
to have been the model of the Pancaratrika than vice versa. Thus the nine-
teenth chapter of the Pauskara teaches as the text's major initiation Mandala
(mahayagah) an arrangement of eight lotuses around a central ninth, calling it
the navaplthamandalam, navabjamandalam, or navanabhamandalam, 80 and a
78 For ragah, vidyd, and kala as the three 'shrouds' (kahcukatrayam) of the Saivas
see, e.g., Matahgaparamesvara, Vidyapada 11.33: rdgavidydkaldkhyena kahcu-
katritayena vai; and Rauravasutrasamgraha 1.3-4: rdgavidydkaldvyaktaguna-
buddhisamudbhavam, where they are the three 'shrouds' (kancukani) of the
bound soul. For the addition of kdlah and niyatih seen in the last verse
of the Jaydkhya passage (16.134) see, e.g., Matahgaparamesvara, Vidyapada
14.2: kahcukatritaydviddham kdlena kalitam sanaih \ niyatydlihgitam ydti
pumbhdvendtmavartind; and Tantrdloka 9.204: mdyd kala rdgavidye kdlo niyatir
eva ca \ kancukani sad uktdni.
79 Cf. Svdyambhuvasutrasamgraha 32.10-11: kalodbalitacaitanyo vidyadarsita-
gocarah | ragena ranjitas cdpi buddhyddikaranais tatah \\ mdyddyavani-
paryantatattvabhutdtmavartmani | bhuhkte tatra sthito bhogdn bhogaikarasikah
pumdn; Kirana 1.16c-17a: tayodbalitacaitanyo vidyakhyapitagocarah ragena
ranjitas cdpi; and Kubjikdmata 13.3: ragena ranjitatma vai niyatyd yo
niydmitah avidydprerito gacchet svargam vd svabhram eva vd.
80 Pauskarasamhitd 1.24ab: yady ekam tu mahdydgam navandbham samudyajet;
10.34cd: navapithe mahdydge tarn ca krtsnam vaddmi te; 19.26: yair uddistam
mahdydge navdbje.
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The Saiva Age
long invocatory Mantra consisting of eighty-one units distributed one by one on
the centre (nabhih) and eight petals of each of the nine lotuses. This arrange-
ment and correlation, which, to my knowledge, is found in the Pancaratrika liter-
ature only in the Pauskara, is central to the Saiva tradition of the Mantramarga,
being the hallmark of a number of its earlier scriptures, where the Mandala is
taught under the same names, 81 and the Mantra with which it is correlated is the
well-known Saiva Vyomavyapimantra of eighty-one units. In the Saiva case the
nine lotus-thrones (pithah) of the Mandala are equated with nine Tattvas: Siva,
Sadasiva, Isvara, Vidya, Maya, Kala, Niyati, Purusa, and Avyakta (Prakrti). In
the Pauskara that element has been dropped, no Vaisnava set of nine Tattvas
being available for this purpose and the Saiva set being unassimilable because it
includes unmistakeably Saiva elements such as Sadasiva and Isvara. Nonethe-
less the text contains a sign that the redactor was after all working with a Saiva
exemplar. For he calls his fourth 'the lotus of Maya'. 82 Maya is a Saiva not a
Pancaratrika Tattva.
Furthermore, in the Pauskara, the Satvata, and the Vasudevakalpa of the
Mahalaksmisamhita we find the term spandah 'vibrancy' in the sense it has
in the Sakta Saiva Jayadrathayamala and the Spandakarika of Kallata in the
second half of the ninth century. However, I do not exclude the possibility that in
this case it may be the Saiva sources that are indebted to the Vaisnava. 83
81 Matahgapdramesvara , Kriydpdda 1.51c: mandalam navapithdkhyam; Ksemaraja,
Svacchandoddyota vol. 2 (Patala 5), p. 22: navandbham navandbhisthdnastha-
padmam etat puramandalam. Cf. Nisvdsaguhya 11.14ab (Nisvdsatattvasamhitd
f. 83vl): ekdsitipado ydgo navavyuheti *samjnitah (conj. \samsthitah Cod.).
82 Pauskarasamhitd 19.24c— 26b, 27ab, 31ab, 37c-38b: jhatum icchdmi
*vidydkhyamantrdndm (vidydkhya em. widydkhyam Ed.) laksanam vibho \\
25 yaih padmakalpand kdryd *padair (conj. :padmair Ed.) nirvartitaih prabho \
brahmaprakdsakdndm tu mantrdndm atha laksanam \\ 26 yair uddistam mahdydge
navdbje pujanam tathd \ ... 27 madhyapadme paddndm ca navakam parikirtitam
| ... 31 mdydmaye 'tha (conj. 'nte Cod.) kamale caturthe tu padam smrtam | . . . iti
vidydpaddndm ca svarupena prakdsitam || 38 atha brahmapaddndm ca laksanam
cdvadhdraya.
83 See Pauskarasamhitd 27.274—276: sdntasamvitsvarupasya spandananda-
maydtmanah | tavdcyutam hi citspandam svayam parinatam
smaret || 275 sahasrasasisurydgniprabhayd projjvalam sthiram |
marlcicakrasampurnacidgarbham sarvatomukham || 276 cidambardntardvastham
susdntam bhagavatpadam; Sdtvatasamhitd 3.15cd: evam jndtvd sthitim brdhmim
svanandaspandalaksandm (conj. \svdnandam spandalaksandm Ed.); also
5.99-101b: lolibhutam abhedena smaret turydtmand purd | nityoditam ca supade
sthitam aspandalaksanam || 100 athdrcitum yam icchet tu visesavyaktilaksanam
| samkalpya tu svabuddhyd tu tatkdlasamanantaram \\ 101 dhruvd sdmarthyasaktir
vai spandatam eti ca svayam; Vasudevakalpa at 165ab: cicchaktau tu layam krtvd
svdnandaspandagocare; 238-241b: mdnasena tu *ydgena (conj. :yogena draft
Ed.) dravyaih samkalpajaih subhaih | hrdambujapare turye *cidbhdsdrupam
(corr. : cidbhdsd rupam draft Ed.) uttamam || 239 kadambagolakdkdram
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Nor was the influence of the Saivism of the Mantramarga confined to the
formative period of the Tantric Pancaratra. For, as I have shown elsewhere, the
Laksmltantra and Ahirbudhnyasamhita, works composed in the South, derive
their distinctive doctrinal character from the assimilation of the dynamic non-
dualism of the works of the Kashmirian Sakta Saivas from Utpaladeva (fl. c. A.D.
925-975) to Ksemaraja (fl.c. 1000-1050). 84
Royal Patronage of Buddhism
Buddhism enjoyed widespread royal support during this period, notably
from the Visnukundis of Andhra in the fifth and sixth centuries, from the
Maitrakas of Valabhi in Saurastra in the sixth and seventh, from the Karkotas
of Kashmir in the eighth, and throughout our period from the Licchavi and
Thakurf kings of Nepal and various dynasties of eastern India, most notably
the Palas (r. c. 750-1200).
The Visnukundis of Andhra
Among the eight successive Visnukundis (r. c. 375-612) known to us from in-
scriptions three of the last six are known to have been patrons of Buddhism: the
third, Govindavarman I (r. c. 422-462), the fifth, Vikramendravarman I (r. c. 502-
527), and the seventh, Vikramendravarman II (r. c. 555-572). In the Tummala-
gudem plates (Set I) issued by Maharaja Govindavarman I he is described as
having beautified his kingdom with many temples and Buddhist monasteries, as
having given generously to brahmins and Buddhist monks, as having resolved to
attain the Great Awakening for the salvation of all living beings, and as having
donated two villages — the charter's object is to record this grant — to fund the
suryayutasamaprabham | svanandaspandarupam ca samcintyatmanam atmana
|| 240 paranandasvabhavastho vetti yah pujanam vibhoh | tenarcitenarcitam vai
dvisaptabhuvanatmakam || 241 visvam dyavaprthivl ca sadevasuramanusam;
and 274c— 275: tanmadhye vistarastham ca laksmim sampujya purvatah
|| vinyaset svasarlrac ca gurur vai pranayogatah | anandaspanda*rupam
(corr. :rupam draft Ed.) capy amrtamrtarupinim. On spandah in Satkas 2-4 of the
Jayadrathayamala see SANDERSON 2007a, pp. 365-366, 406, fn. 579. The term also
occurs in the earlier first Satka, f. 190v4-5 (45.121-123b): nistarangarnavakarah
paritrpta<h> paraparah \ susantamurtih sarvatma nirvaneso 'tinirmalah || 122
tasya saktih svakam vlryam ciddhamanandagocaram | vyaktam vyaktivibhedena
spandananandasundaram || 123 taddharmadharminl jneya saktir adya sivasya
sd. For evidence that the first Satka of the Jayadrathayamala once formed an
independent whole to which Satkas 2-4 were added in Kashmir at a later date see
Sanderson 2002, pp. 2 and 22, n. 13, and 2005b, pp. 278-283.
84 For the evidence see Sanderson 2001, pp. 35-38. For some other Saiva features in
Paiicaratrika texts see Rastelli 2007, pp. 209, 214, and 224-225.
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The Saiva Age
expenses of a Buddhist monastery founded by his chief queen Paramadevi. 85 A
second set of plates discovered at Tummalagudem contains a charter issued by
Vikramendravarman II which records his granting a village for the support of the
Buddhist community at this monastery The founder's husband Govindavarman
I is described as having beautified the whole of the Deccan with splendid Stupas
and monasteries, and Vikramendravarman I, his grandson and the grandfather
of Vikramendravarman II, is identified as paramasaugatah 'entirely devoted to
the Buddha'. 86 However, in a charter issued by Vikramendravarman II in the
previous year, recording a grant of a village to a Saiva temple, he is referred to
85 SANKARANARAYANAN 1977:1, 11.8-24: anekadevdyatanavihdrasabhdprapdtaddko-
dapdndrdmapratisamskdrdpurvakaranendlamkrtasakaladigantarena bhiksu-
dvijdndthaydcakavyddhitadinakrpanajanopabhujyamdnanydyddhigatavibhava-
dhanasamudayendsakrd asakrt svasarvasvatydgind . . . sakalasattvadhdtutrdnd-
yotpdditamahdbodhicittena mahdrdjasrlgovindav armaria . . . svasyd agramahisydh
paramadevyd vihdrasya dipadhupagandhapuspadhvajapdnabhojanasayandsana-
gldnabhaisajyakhandasphutitasirnasamskdrddikusalamuldnuccheddrtham dvdv
ermad[d]laprenkaparundmadheyau grdmau udakaddnapurvakam atisrstau 'In
order that his roots of merit should not be cut off, through [the provision of funds
for] such [expenses] as lamps, incense, scents, flowers, banners, drinking water,
food, beds, seats, medicines for sick [monks], and repairs to whatever is broken,
cracked, and delapidated, the two villages named Ermadala and Preftkaparu
have been donated to the monastery of his chief queen Paramadevi with the [due]
pouring of water [into the hand of the recipient] by Maharaja Govindavarman,
who has adorned all parts [of his kingdom] through his unprecedented provision
of numerous temples, Buddhist monasteries, meeting halls, fountains, reservoirs,
wells, and gardens, all of whose great wealth, lawfully acquired, is being enjoyed by
Buddhist monks, brahmins, the unprotected, supplicants, the sick, the wretched,
and the poor, who has [in this way] repeatedly given away all his property, and who
has generated the intention to attain the Great Awakening for the salvation of all
living beings'.
86 SANKARANARAYANAN 1977:8, 11. 10—18: paramasaugatasya mahdrdjasrivikrame-
ndrasya sunor . . . sri-indrabhattdrakavarmanah priyasunus . . . sri[md]n vikrame-
ndrabhattdrakavarmd . . . ittham avabodhayati 'Vikramendrabhattarakavarman,
beloved son of Indrabhattarakavarman, the son of paramasaugatah Maharaja
Vikramendra informs you as follows'; 11.24—33: atibahuprakdramanoramo-
ddrakarmddbhutastupavihdraculdmanibhir alamkrtasakaladaksindpathasya
. . . srlgo[vi]ndardjasya murtimatlm sriyam praty avisayikrtamanorathayd para-
ma[bha]ttdrikdmahddevyd srlmadindrapuram uccair alamkartukdmayeva prati-
sthdpite srimati paramabhattdrikdmahdvihdre 'smdbhifh] . . . cdturdasdryavara-
bhiksusamghaparibhogdya . . . irundoro ndma grdmo dattah 'I have donated the
village called Irundora for the use of the community of excellent monks of the
four directions in the venerable Paramabhattarikamahavihara that was founded
by Paramabhattarikamahadevi as though desiring to bestow great beauty on
Indrapura, fulfilling [thereby] the desire for embodied [royal] splendour of [her
husband] King Govinda, who adorned the whole of the Deccan with splendid Stupas
and monasteries that were marvelous in their most various, charming, and noble
workmanship'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
as paramamahesvarah, as is his father Indrabhattarakavarman, 87 drawing to
our attention that if a king supported Buddhism he did not necessarily cease to
support other faiths or abandon his own.
The Maitrakas ofValabhl
Of the land-grant documents of the Maitrakas ofValabhl three quarters are
records of grants to brahmins, but the remaining quarter report grants made by
these kings to Buddhist institutions. 88 Guhasena (r. c. 553-569) has the epithet
paramopasakah 'devout lay Buddhist'; 89 Slladitya I Dharmaditya (r. c. 595-612)
is praised for his support of Buddhism in the east-Indian Rajavyakarana of the
Buddhist Tantric Mafijusriyamulakalpa 90 and by the Chinese Huili in his ac-
count of the Indian travels of Xuanzang; 91 and the latter, who visited the king-
dom ofValabhl in the 630s, when the Maitraka Dhruvasena II was on the throne,
reports that the king had recently developed a sincere faith in Buddhism and be-
come a generous donor to the monastic community 92 Moreover, Valabhi became
a major centre of Mahayana Buddhist scholarship during this period, producing
such eminent figures as Sthiramati (fl. c. 510-570), for whom a monastery was es-
tablished in Valabhi during the reign of Guhasena. 93 In their inscriptions, how-
87 The Chikkula plates of Vikramendravarman (Sankaranarayanan 1977:7), 11. 15-
19: parama[md]hesvarasya mahdrdjasya sri-indrabhattdrakavarmana[h] priyajye-
sthaputro . . . paramamdhesvaro mahdrdjafh] srimdn vikramendravarmd evam d-
jhdpayati.
88 SCHMIEDCHEN 2007, p. 360.
89 SCHMIEDCHEN 1993, p. 84.
90 Mafijusriyamulakalpa 53.537d-540: samudratiraparyantam laddndm jana-
pade tathd || 38 sildhvo ndma nrpatih buddhdndm sdsane ratah | purim
valabhya samprdpto dharmardjd bhavisyati || 39 vihdrdn dhdtuvardn citrdn
*sreyase (em. : sreyasdm Ed.) prdnindms tathd | kdrayisyati yuktdtmd bhupatir
dharmavatsalah || 40 pujdm ca vividhdkdrdm jinabimbdm manoramdm | pujayed
dhdtuvardn agrydn lokandthebhyo yasasvisu \ ndsau mantrasiddhas tu kevalam
karmajottamah 'In the land of the Latas up to the shore of the [western] ocean a
king called Sila, devoted to the teaching of the Buddhas, will become a Dharma-
raja in the city of Valabhi. That royal friend of Buddhism, of well-disciplined
mind, will build monasteries and beautiful relic Stupas for the welfare of living
beings. [He will establish] the manifold worship of beautiful images of the Bud-
dha; and he will venerate the most excellent of the relics of the renowned Buddhas.
He will not achieve success through [the Buddhist Way of] Mantras, but will ex-
cell simply through acts of [lay] piety'. For the east-Indian origin of the text see
Mafijusriyamulakalpa 53.627a: gaudadese 'smin; and 53.810a: prdcyadese 'smin.
91 Beal 1914, p. 148.
92 Xiyu ji, vol. 2, pp. 267-268. For a detailed account and analysis of religious patron-
age under the Maitrakas during the sixth and seventh centuries see NJAMMASCH
2001, pp. 199-278.
93 On the dates of Sthiramati and the evidence that a monastery was established for
him see Frauwallner 1961, pp. 136 ff.
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The Saiva Age
ever, Siladitya I Dharmaditya, Dhruvasena II, and generally Guhasena too, ap-
pear like almost all the other Maitrakas with the epithet paramamahesvarah. 94
The Karkotas of Kashmir
No inscriptions have survived from the reigns of the kings of the Karkota
dynasty of Kashmir. But from the account of this dynasty given by the Kashmi-
ran historian Kalhana we learn that although, as we have seen, the temples they
established with their names were Visnus, 95 they or those closely associated with
them also established several Buddhist foundations: the Anantabhavanavihara
founded by the queen of Durlabhavardhana (r. c. 626-662); the Prakasikavihara
founded by Prakasadevi, queen of Candrapida (r. c. 712-720/1); the Rajavihara
'The King's Monastery' founded and richly endowed by Lalitaditya (r. c. 725-
761/2) with a large Caitya and a huge Buddha image at his new capital
Parihasapura; the Kayyavihara, founded during the rule of the same by Kayya,
a king of Lata; a Vihara, a Stupa, and golden Buddha images established at
Parihasapura by Lalitaditya's Central Asian chief minister Cankuna; a Vihara
and a Caitya established by the same in the capital; and a large monastery
and three Buddha images established by Jayapida (r. c. 773/4-804/5) in his new
capital Jayapura. 96
94 See, e.g., the Alma copper-plate inscription of Siladitya VII of a.d. 766/7, CII.39.
There all the kings listed are said to be paramamahesvarah: the general Bhatarka,
the founder of the dynasty, followed, after an unspecified number of generations, by
Guhasena, Dharasena (II), Siladitya (I), Kharagraha (I), Dharasena (III), Dhru-
vasena (II), Dharasena (IV), Dhruvasena (III), Kharagraha (II), Siladitya (II),
Siladitya (III), Siladitya (IV), Siladitya (V), and Siladitya (VI). In the Maliya
copper-plate inscription of Dharasena II, A.D. 571/2, we are given the names of
the Maitrakas who ruled between the founder Bhatarka and Dharasena II. They
are Dharasena I, Dronasimha, Dhruvasena I, and Dharapatta. Of these the first
two have the epithet paramamahesvarah; Dhruvasena is here a Vaisnava (param-
abhagavatah) rather than a Buddhist (paramopasakah); and Dharapatta is a devo-
tee of the Sun-God (paramadityabhaktah . It seems that in the later years of the
Maitraka dynasty, when Saivism had become firmly established as the religion
of this dynasty, there was a desire to forget those early rulers, Dhruvasena and
Dharapatta, whose religious preference had deviated. This practice of beginning
the account of lineage with Bhatarka and then jumping to Guhasena and his suc-
cessors, so that all the kings have the epithet paramamahesvarah, is already seen
in the Dana plates of Dhruvasena II issued in 634/5 (EI 42:15).
95 See here, p. 60.
96 Rajatarahgini 4.3 (Anangabhavana); 4.79 (Prakasikavihara); 4.200-205
(Rajavihara etc.); 4. 210 (Kayyavihara); 4.211 and 215 (the foundations of
Cankuna); and 4.507 (the foundations of Jayapida). For the vestiges of Lalitaditya's
Rajavihara, his Caitya, and Cankuna's Stupa at Parihasapura (Paraspor) see
Krishna Deva in EITA vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 366-367; plates 722-727. Cankuna is
evidently a rendering of the Chinese military title jiangjun 'General' rather than a
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Licchavis of Nepal
In the Kathmandu valley the inscriptions of kings throughout our period
show their devotion to Siva. But here too, where Buddhism and Saivism
co-existed among the Newars down to the present, there is ample evidence
of royal support for the former. The Licchavi Vrsadeva is described in an
inscription of his eighth-century descendant Jayadeva as having inclined to-
wards Buddhism; 97 a view confirmed by a local chronicle, which attributes to
him the establishing of Buddhist images; 98 and in the first half of the seventh
century Xuanzang claims that the king of Nepal was a sincere believer. 99 The
Gopalarajavamsavali, the earliest of the local chronicles, compiled during the
reign of Jayasthitimalla (1382-1395), 10 ° claims that the Caitya at Gumvihara
and a monastery, the Manavihara, were established by Manadeva, the Caitya
of the Sinagu-vihara (the Svayambhunath Caitya) by Vrsadeva, 101 the Dhar-
madevacaitya (the Cabahil Caitya) by Dharmadeva, a monastery and the
Khasaucaitya (the Bodhnath Caitya) 102 by Sivadeva, the Phutovihara and a
Caitya by Campadeva, the Rajavihara by Amsuvarman, the Devalavihara by
Devaladeva, and a monastery at Nandisala by Sivadeva. To Narendradeva and
his Buddhist preceptor Bandhudatta it attributes the instituting of the annual
chariot festival (yatra) of the popular Newar Buddhist deity Bugmalokesvara
97 LKA 148, 1.9: sugatasasanapaksapati .
98 Levi 1990, vol. 2, p. 98.
99 Xiyuji, vo\.2, p. 81.
ioo rp^g Qopalardjavamsdvali, preserved in a single, palm-leaf manuscript that has
lost the first sixteen of its folios, consists of three originally separate parts. The
first (ff. 17r-30v) covers the period down to 1386. Its coverage of the period before
the reign of Anantamalla (1274-1307) (ff. 17r-26r) consists of little more than a
list of kings, the lengths of their reigns, in some cases a record of their religious
foundations and a few contemporary events such as plagues and famines and rituals
undertaken to avert them. From f. 26v to f. 29r it is a little more forthcoming. The
last event it records is dated in 1379. Up to this point the text is in a low register
of Sanskrit. The remainder of the first part, f. 29v-30v, is written in Old Newari in
a more annalistic style and extends the account down to 1386. The second text (ff.
30v-36r), in Old Newari mixed with Sanskrit, covers the years 1056/7 to 1275/6. It
consists for the most part of chronological genealogy, giving dates of birth, length of
reign, and age at death. The third (ff. 36v-63v + another f. 50), in Old Newari, is
an annalistic chronicle whose main concern is to record religious foundations, with
entries extending from 1258/9 to 1388/9. See Petech 1984, p. 6.
101 The manuscript gives the name Visvadeva here, but as the editors propose, this
is surely an error for Vrsadeva (f. 20r2-3): raja srivisvadeva varsa 100 tena krta
sinaguvihara caityabhattarike pratisthita sampurna krtam. The identification of
this with the famous Svayambhunath Caitya is evident from the name Sinagu,
which corresponds to Syangu, its modern Newari name.
102 This identification follows from the fact that the Bodhnath Stupa is known as Khasa
Caitya in Newari. On these early Nepalese Caityas — this term rather than Stupa
is the normal uage in Nepal — see Gutschow 1997, pp. 85-99.
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The Saiva Age
(Bugadyah/Karunamaya-Matsyendranath). 103 Unsurprisingly, the Amaravati-
mahavihara (Buga Bahah) at Bungamati, the home of Bugmalokesvara, claims
to have been founded by him. 104
Manadeva's dated inscriptions range in date from 459 to 505/6, 105 and
we know from his Carigunarayana inscription that Vrsadeva was his great-
grandfather and Dharmadeva his father. 106 The claim that he founded a
monastery with his own name, the Manavihara, is confirmed by its mention
in an undated inscription assigned to his reign. 107 The epigraphical dates of
Sivadeva range from 590/1 to 604/5. 108 There is another Licchavi with the same
name, with inscriptions ranging from 694 to 705, 109 but it is unlikely that it
is the second that is intended, since grants of villages to the Sivadevavihara
have been mentioned in two inscriptions dated in 679, during the reign of his
predecessor. 110 The inscriptions of Amsuvarman range from 593 to 615; 111 and
103 Gopdlardjavamsdvali f. 20v5: Caitya at Gumvihara; f. 21rl: Manavihara; f. 20v2-
3: Caitya at Svayambhu; f. 21r3: Dharmadevacaitya; f. 21vl: Khasaucaitya;
f. 21v2: Phutovihara and Caitya; f. 22vl: Amsuvarman's Rajavihara; f. 22v3:
Devalavihara; f. 22v5: Sivadeva's monastery; and ff. 22v5-23rl (the festival
of Bugadyah): sri narendradeva varsa 35 tasya dcdryabamdhudattadvayena
srTbugmalokesvarabhatdrakasyaja.tra.krtd bhavati 'Narendradeva: [reigned for] 35
years. Jointly with his Acarya Bandhudatta he established the festival of Lord Bu-
gmalokesvara'. On the festival of Bugadyah, also known (in Nepali) as Rato ('Red')
Matsyendranath, which is still a major event in the Kathmandu valley, see Locke
1980, pp. 244-280.
104 See the tabulated list of the eighteen principal monasteries of Patan and their
founders in Locke 1980, pp. 32-33. He includes the Buga Bahah at its end, noting
that it stands apart, not being counted among the principal monasteries of either
Patan or Kathmandu.
105 In the Licchavi inscriptions of LKA the earliest date is 464/5 (no. 2) and the latest
505/6 (no. 19). An earlier inscription, dated in Vaisakha 381 (=a.d. 459), which
came to light during renovation work at the Pasupati temple, has been published
(Dhakal 1990). The earliest Licchavi dates are in the Saka era, which was used
until the time of Amsuvarman, the last recorded Saka date being 526 (a.d. 604/5)
in LKA 69 and 70. Thereafter the inscriptions are dated in a new era, often called
Amsuvarman's, which commenced in A.D. 576, and continued in use until the intro-
duction of a new era in Kartika 879, which has remained in use down to modern
times.
106 LKA 2, side 1, 1. 8-side 2, 1. 3: rdjdbhud vrsadevah . . . yasydbhut tanayah . . . raja
sahkaradeva ity anupafmo] . . . devT rdjyavati tu tasya nrpater bhdryd . . .yasydm
jdta . . . srlmdnadevo nrpah.
107 LKA 18, 1. 18: ksetram cdksayam dattam [sri]mdnavihdre.
108 LKA 54 and 70.'
109 LKA 138 and 143.
110 LKA 133, 11.4-11 and 134, 11.4-12: ayam grdmo . . . srisivadevavihdfre] catur-
disdryabhiksusahghdydsmdbhir atisrstah 'I have given this village to the congre-
gation of noble monks of the four directions at the Sivadevavihara'.
111 LKA 59 and 85.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the Rajavihara arributed to him by the chronicle is mentioned in one of these,
dated in 608. It also mentions the Manavihara and the Gumvihara, showing
the accuracy of the report of the chronicle that these three monasteries are
ancient Licchavi foundations. Moreover, it does so in a context that enables us
to gauge their relative importance. For it fixes cash allowances from the court
(rajakulam) to a large number of religious foundations and these are ranked into
two groups. The upper comprises the temple of Bhagavat Pasupati, the national
Siva, to whom all Nepalese kings from the time of Amsuvarman onwards have
declared their allegiance, 112 Dolasikharasvamin (Carigunarayana), the principal
Visnu of Nepal, then these three Buddhist monasteries, and two others not
mentioned by the chronicle, the Kharjurikavihara and the Madhyamavihara. All
of these are to receive the same allowance; and this is twice that to be received
by the institutions listed in the lower group. That comprises "the ordinary
monasteries" and the temples of various other deities, most of whom are Sivas,
including Manesvara, evidently the temple of a Liriga installed by Manadeva
with his name. 113 Narendra, whom the chronicle reports to have instituted the
annual chariot festival of Bugmalokesvara, has dated inscriptions from 643 to
679. 114 The last two, issued in 679 and mentioned above for their reference
to the Sivadevavihara, record the granting of villages to that monastery; and
the Chinese envoy Wang Xuan-ce reported that when he had an audience with
112 See Sanderson 2005a, p. 417, fn. 254.
113 LKA 77, 11. 6-15: bhagavatah pasupateh pu 6 pa 2 dolasikharasvaminah pu 6 pa
2 +++ gumviharasya 6 pa 2 srimanaviharasya pu 6 pa 2 srirajaviharasya 6 pa 2
kharjurikaviharasya 6 pa 2 ma[dhya]maviharasya 6 pa 2 samanyaviharanam pu 3
pa 1 ramesvarasya pu 3 pa 1 hamsagrhesvarasya pu 3 pa 1 manesvarasya pu 3 pa
1 sambapurasya pu 3 pa 1 vagmatiparadevasya pu 3 pa 1 dharamanesvarasya pu 3
pa 1 parvatesvarasya pu 3 pa 1 narasimhadevasya pu 3 pa 1 kailasesvarasya pu 3
pa 1 bhumbhukkikajalasayanasya pu 3 pa 1 tadanyadevakulanam pu 2 pa 2 . . . 'six
Pufranas] and 2 Pafnas] each for Bhagavat Pasupati, Dolasikharasvamin (=Cangu-
narayana), the Gumvihara, the Manavihara, the Rajavihara, the Kharjurikavihara,
and the Madhyamavihara; 3 Pufranas] and 1 Pa[n]a each for the ordinary Viharas,
and [the temples of Siva] Ramesvara, the Lord of the Hamsagrha (=Visnu Lokapala-
svamin), [Siva] Manesvara, Samba[siva], Vagmatiparadeva [Siva], [Siva] Dhara-
manesvara, [Siva] Parvatesvara, Narasimhadeva, [Siva] Kailasesvara, and the
[Visnu] Jalasayana of Bhumbhukkika (=the Visnu of Budhamlkanth); 2 Pu[ranas]
and 2 Pafnas] for the temples other than these . . . '. The Kharjurikavihara calls to
mind the Stupa which the Buddha predicts in the Mulasarvastivadavinaya will
be built by the Kusana emperor Kaniska at Kharjurika four hundred years af-
ter his Parinirvana (Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. 3, pt. 1, pp. 1, 1.20-2, 1.5: bhagavdn
kharjurikam anupraptah | . . . esa caturvarsasataparinirvrtasya mama vajrapane
kanisko nama raja bhavisyati | so 'smin pradese stiipam pratisthapayati | tasya
kaniskastupa iti samjna bhavisyati.
114 LKA 123-134.
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The Saiva Age
Narendradeva in 643 the king's belt was adorned with a Buddha. 115 But here
too we see that the support of Buddhism in Nepal as elsewhere was not a sign
that a king had changed his religious allegiance in any radical sense. For in both
of those inscriptions Narendradeva has the epithet paramamahesvarah. 116
The Thakuri Kings of Nepal
Between the Licchavis, who last appear in the epigraphical record in 737,
and the Malla kings, who ruled from 1200-1768, lies the relatively obscure
period of the so-called Thakuri kings. These too, though predominantly Saiva,
supported Buddhist institutions. Only one, Simhadeva (r. 1110-1126), has been
declared paramasaugatah; 111 but several of the monasteries of the Kathmandu
valley are attributed to kings of this period in inscriptions, palm-leaf deeds,
manuscript colophons, or their own tradition: the Padmacakramahavihara to
Gunakamadeva I, 118 the Jyotirmahavihara (Jyo Bahah) and Dattamahavihara
115 The report of this encounter has been incorporated in chapter 221 of the Jiu Tang-
shu (Old History of the Tang Dynasty), covering the years 618-906 and compiled in
940-945. In a translation of this passage published by Sylvain Levi (1894, p. 67)
we read "Leur roi Na-ling ti-po (Narendra Deva) . . . a . . . des breloques a sa ceinture,
ornees d'un Fou-tou (Buddha?)". In a footnote he explains the question mark, say-
ing that the use of fou-tou for 'Buddha' in the seventh century is problematic. But
when he re-published his translation (1905a, vol. 1, p. 164) he removed the question
mark.
116 LKA 133, 11. 1-3: bhagavatpasupatibhattdrakapdddnugrhlto bappapdddnudhyd-
to licchavikulaketuh paramamdhesvaraparamabhattdrakamahdrdjddhirdjasrlna-
rendradevah kusali gullahgahgrdmanivdsinah pradhdnapurahsardn sarvakutu-
mbinah samdjndpayati 'Favoured by the venerable lord Pasupati, devoted to his
venerable father, the banner of the Licchavi dynasty, entirely devoted to Siva, the
supreme Lord, the paramount king Narendradeva greets the elders and all the
other householders who live in Gullarigan village and commands them [as follows]'.
The same formula is seen in 134, 11. 1-4. Only the name of the village differs.
The historicity of Campadeva and Devaladeva, the remaining two kings men-
tioned by the Gopdlardjavamsdvali as the founders of monasteries, is doubtful.
They appear nowhere in the corpus of known Licchavi inscriptions, and in the
local chronicles only in the Gopdlardjavamsdvali, which places the first between
Sivadeva and Narendradeva and the second before Dhruvavarman — another name
found only in this source — and Bhimarjunadeva.
117 Colophon of ASB MS 9973 (Shastri 1917, pp. 4-5): paramasaugatasrimatsimha-
devasya vijayardjye.
118 Petech (1984, p. 40) quotes the following colophon of an Astasdhasrikd
Prajndpdramitd MS (NAK 3-359) that he wrongly reports as Catuspithanibandha:
samvat 100 60 5 srdvanasukladasamydm sukradine | rdjye sribhdskaradevasya
| srigunakdmadevakdrite sripadmacakramahdvihdre sthitasdkyabhiksukumdra-
candrena likhitam 'Copied by Sakyabhiksu Kumaracandra, resident of the Padma-
cakramahavihara founded by Gunakamadeva, on Friday, the bright tenth of
Sravana, in the year 165 during the reign of Bhaskaradeva'. The date of copying is
26 July 1045 (Petech, loc. cit.).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
(Dau Bahah) to Rudradeva I (c. 1007-1018) or Rudradeva II (1167-1175),
the Hiranyavarnamahavihara (Kwa Bahah) and the Paravatamahavihara
(Itum Bahah) to Bhaskaradeva (1039-1048), the Mayuravarnamahavihara
(Bhiche Bahah) to Sankaradeva (1069-1082), the Tedovihara (Te Bahah)
to Sivadeva (1098-1126), the Jayamanoharavarnamahavihara (Su Bahah)
and Asanalokesvaramahavihara, also called Kacchapalagirimahavihara (Co
Bahah) to Indradeva (1126-1136), the Cakravarnamahavihara (Cuka Bahah)
to Manadeva (1136-1140), the Rudravarnamahavihara / Urikulimahavihara
(Uku/U Bahah), the Manipurajaivamahavihara, and and the Bandhudatta-
mahavihara to Narendradeva (1140-1147), and the Srivatsavihara (Atha
Bahah) to Anandadeva ( 1147-1 167). 119 However, it is possible in the cases of
Sankaradeva, Sivadeva, Manadeva, and Narendradeva, that the attribution
intended was to their Licchavi namesakes.
We have very little evidence for the reigns of these Thakuris, but what there
is suffices to remove any suspicion that they were Buddhists to the exclusion of
Saivism. According to the local chronicles Gunakamadeva made lavish donations
to the temple of Pasupati, 120 Sankaradeva established a temple of a Siva with his
name (Sankaresvara), 121 and Sivadeva gilded the roof of the temple of Pasupati,
' For these monasteries and the names of the kings by whom they are said to have
been founded (samskdrita- , kdrita-) see Locke 1980, pp. 32-33, and 1985, pp. 29,
42, 74, 79, 82, 9L 95, 133, 140, 148. The dates of the reigns of these kings are as
determined by Petech 1984.
' Kaiser library Vamsdvali fragment (Petech 1984, Appendix), p. 2: raja sriguna-
kdmadeva varsa 85 mdsa 6 || tena srlpasupatibhattdrakdya ekddasakosam pra-
dattam tatraiva isdnesvarabhattdrakdya vdsukibhattdrakasya tdmmrasamsali-
cchadanam krtya tatraiva *dlrgha*coparhika (conj. : copatrika Ed.) krtya tatraiva
suvarnapanali kotihomam krtas ceti || raja, sri udayadeva varsa 6 || raja, srlnirbhaya-
deva varsa 5 'King Gunakamadeva: 85 years and 6 months. He donated eleven
[metal Lihga] sheaths to Lord Pasupati. At the same place he covered [the roofs of
the shrines] of Lord Isanesvara and [the Naga] Lord Vasuki with copper *sheets
(?), built a long rest-house and a golden water conduit, and performed a fire-
sacrifice with ten million oblations'. King Udayadeva: 6 years; King Nirbhayadeva
5 years || . . . '; cf. GopalarajavamsavalT f. 23vl-2: raja, srlgunakamadeva varsa 85
ma 6 tena srlpasupatibhatarakaya ekadasa kosa sampradatta | tatraiva-m isanye-
svarabhatarakaya tamrasamkhalasamchadanam krta | tatraiva dlrghacopa<r>hl
krtah tatraiva suvarnapanali [kr]tah kotihoma purna krtam. The word samsali
(=samkhali or samkhala) is evidently for Skt. srhkhald, srhkhalika 'chain'. I
have conjectured the meaning 'sheet' considering the design of the Pasupati temple,
whose roof is covered with interlocking metalic plates, panali = pranalika. With
*copdrhi (conj.) cf. Classical Newari capdrha (Modern Newari capdh) 'rest-house'
(Tamot et. al. 2000, s.v.).
1 Kaiser library Vamsdvali fragment (Petech 1984, Appendix), p. 4: raja
srisankaradeva varsa 17 | tena hi nandisdldydm samk<ar>resvarabhattd[rakd]ya
pratisthitd devakulam ca purnam krtya rdstrasdntikd + + + + vihdras ca
prdra<bha>ta 'King Sankaradeva: 17 years. He established [a Linga] for Lord
Sankaresvara and completed a temple [for him]. He also undertook the con-
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The Saiva Age
replaced the god's silver lotus, and donated a golden image of Siva. 122 Both In-
dradeva and Anandadeva have the epithet paramasaiva- attached to their names
in the colophons of manuscripts copied during their reigns; 123 and an inscription
of 1143/4 records that Anandadeva, while he was the heir apparent (Yuvaraja),
received Saiva initiation from the Saiddhantika Guru Rudrasiva of Benares, to-
gether with the princes Vasantadeva, Somesvara, Yasomalla, and Arjunadeva: 124
struction of the . . . monastery in order to avert danger from the kingdom' (I con-
jecture rdstrasdntikdrandt for rdstrasdntikd + + ); cf. Gopalavamsavali f. 24rl—
2: raja sri sahkaradeva varsa 15 tena ca namdisdldydm sahkaresvarabhatdraka
pratisthitam tdmrasamchanna krtam devalam || puna bhagavati manahara
bhatdrikd pratisthitd \\ rdstrasdnti bhavatih 'King Sahkaradeva: 15 years. He es-
tablished [a Linga of] Sankaresvarabhattaraka at Nandisala and covered the tem-
ple with a copper roof. He also established Bhagavati Manahara. This brought
about the averting of danger from the kingdom'.
122 Kaiser library Vamsdvali fragment (Petech 1984, Appendix III), pp. 4-
5: raja, srisifvadeva vajrsa 27 mdsa 7 | tena hi pasupatibhattdrakasya
suvarnasrm[khali]chddanam krta . . . srimatpasupatibhattdrakasya rajatapadma
punar ghatita 'King Sivadeva: 27 years and 7 months. He covered [the temple
of] Pasupatibhattaraka with gilded metal plates and remade his silver lotus'; cf.
Gopalavamsavali f. 24r3-vl.
123 Petech 1984, p. 57, colophon of a manuscript of the Cdndravydkaranavrtti in Ti-
bet: srimadrdjddhirdjaparamesvaraparamabhattdrakaparamasaiva-indradeva-
sya sri-indradevasya vijayardjye; and Petech 1984, p. 61, colophon of an Astasd-
hasrikd Prajhdpdramitd manuscript: + + + paramabhattdrakaparamasaivama-
hdrdjddhirdjasrTmaddnandadevapravarddhamdnakalydnavijayardjye. The scribal
date of completion falls in 1134 in the first case and in 1166 in the second.
124 Vv. 23-25: asydm sriraghuvamsamauktika*manir jdto jandnandanah
(ACHARYA :mani . . .datah Regmi) sdndras candra ivdnvito 'timadhurair dnanda-
devah karaih | uccaih saktidharah kumdrapadavim *prdpto 'pi tair (ACHARYA :prd-
ptocitair Regmi) *diksito [ddntah siddhim avarna]niyamahimd (ACHARYA :diksita
...ya mahimd Regmi) *prdpat pardm aisvarim (ACHARYA :prdpa . . . tyaisvarlm
Regmi) || 24 *saurye 'rjunasamah (Achary A :saurye 'yam na sama Regmi)
*preksya gundms tesu gunapriyah (ACHARYA : preksagunds te pragunapriyah
Regmi) | bhaktim *arjunadevo 'pi vidadhe vibudhesv iva (ACHARYA : bhaktim arju-
nam datvd ...vah) Regmi) 25 vasantadevo vijndni *dhimdn (ACHARY A :srimdn
Regmi) somesvaras tathd | yasomalla*s ca (Acharya : sva Regmi) tair eva kumdrd
diksitd ami. The plural pronouns here, tair diksito in 23c, gundms tesu in 24b, and
tair eva in 25d, are plurals of respect (ddare bahuvacanam) and refer to Rudrasiva,
who is also referred to in the plural in v. 12: sisyd babhuvur iha rudrasiva iti, as
is his Guru Murtisiva in v. 8: bhattdrakd uditamurtisivdbhidhdndh. This record
that contains these verses, a stone inscription now in the Government Museum in
Kathmandu, has been published by Regmi (1965-1966, pt. 3, pp. 13-16) and, in a
more complete and accurate form, by ACHARYA (1997) with an annotated Nepali
translation. It was subsequently published by Tandan (1999, part 2, pp. 114-123),
adopting only some of Acharya's improvements. ACHARYA understands the
number 64 in the damaged penultimate line (. . . [cajtuhsasti . . . ydta sa .. . ) to be
the last two digits of the inscription's date. The full number he conjectures to have
been 264, which corresponds to A.D. 1143/4. He is surely right, since this is the
only +64 date that fits the persons mentioned. Moreover, falling four years before
Anandadeva became king the date accords with the information that he was still
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
In this [city] was born Anandadeva, a jewel in the pearl-necklace of the lineage
of Raghu, delighting the people like a gentle moon with its most charming rays.
Being self-controlled and of indescribable greatness, though he had achieved the
status of prince (kumdra-) of great power (/though he had achieved the status
[only] of Kumara who brandishes the javelin), he achieved when initiated by
[Rudrasiva] the ultimate attainment of Sivafhood]. Likewise Arjunadeva, Ar-
juna's equal in martial valour and a lover of virtues, conceived as great a de-
votion to this [Rudrasiva] as to the gods, when he had seen his virtues. As for the
learned Vasantadeva, the wise Somesvara, and Yasomalla, those princes too were
initiated by the same [Guru].
Neither Arjunadeva nor Yasomalla are otherwise known from this ill-
documented phase of Nepalese history. But we do have records of both a
Vasantadeva, who was born in 1112 and died in 1163 but did not rule, and of
a Somesvaradeva, who was born in 1119, died in 1182, and ruled from 1178 to
1 183/5. 125
The Bhauma-Karas ofOrissa
But it was in the region of the modern territories of Bihar, West Bengal,
Bangladesh, and Orissa that Buddhism enjoyed its most spectacular success in
these centuries. It is only there that we find dynasties whose commitment to
Buddhism was such that it was commonly signalled in their inscriptions through
the use of such epithets as paramasaugatah and paramatathagatah 'entirely
devoted to the Buddha'. Notable among these are the early Bhauma-Karas of
Orissa (r.c. 825-950), 126 the early Candras of southeast Bengal (r. c. 850-1050),
and, above all, the Pala emperors of Gauda (r.c. 750-1199), who at the height of
their power extended their authority throughout eastern India and beyond. 127
the Yuvaraja at the time of his initiation.
125 See Petech 1984, pp. 64-67 and 71-72, and the Genealogical Table A, p. 229.
126 rp^g name Bhauma-Kara is Indological. The early inscriptions speak of these rulers
as Bhaumas and the later as Karas, evidently after the -kara that ends most of their
names.
127 The Palas and their successors, the Senas, are regularly described as kings of Gauda
(gaudesvarah, gaudendrah, gaudardjah, gaudddhipah, gaudapatih, etc.); see, e.g.,
Sircar 1983a:26, 1. 33 (Laksmanasena); here pp. 108 (Nayapala) and 109 (Palapala,
Mahlpala); Saduktikarnamrta 1449, 1496. The name Gauda in its narrow sense
refers to a territory covering parts of West Bengal, being distinguished from Mag-
adha, Variga, and Ariga. But with expansion of the power of its rulers it came to
denote a much larger territory. Thus Campa in modern Bihar, the capital of ancient
Ahga, is described as the capital of Gauda in the Anarghardghava (Act 7, prose be-
fore v. 124: campa, nama gauddndm . . . rdjadhdnl), and Kausambi, about 35 miles
south-west of Allahabad, is said to be in it in the Hitopadesa (Mitraldbha, Kathd 5,
p. 19: asti gaudavisaye kausambi nama nagari).
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The Saiva Age
Of the early Bhauma-Kara kings of Orissa Ksemarikara, who probably
reigned around the beginning of the ninth century, is described in inscriptions as
a paramopasakah 'a dedicated lay Buddhist', his son and successor Sivakara I as
paramatathagatah, his son and successor Subhakara I, as paramasaugatah and
paramopasakah, his son and successor Sivakara II as srisugatasrayah 'having
the venerable Buddha as his refuge', and his son Subhakaradeva II, who reigned
after his father's brother Santikara I alias Gayada, as paramasaugatah. 128
A copper-plate of TribhuvanamahadevI, the Vaisnava (paramavaisnavi) wife
of Santikara I, who occupied the throne as queen after the reign of her son
Subhakara III alias Kusumahara, records that Subhakara (I), her husband's
father, built a lofty Buddhist monastery; 129 another issued by her records
that the earlier kings of her line had adorned the land with many Mathas,
Buddhist monasteries, and temples; 130 and a third issued c. 980 by the para-
mamahesvarah Sivakara III alias Lalitahara, the son of her grandson Sivakara
II, records the granting of a village in favour of a temple of the Buddha in
Uttaratosali made through him by his vassal Ranaka Vinitatunga. 131
This epigraphical record is meagre, but it is very likely that it was the pa-
128 EI 15:1 (the Neulpur grant of Subhakara I), 11.2-5, and EI 28:36 (the Terundia
plate of Subhakara II), 11. 4-13. The religious affiliation of Santikara I and of five
of the subsequent twelve rulers of this dynasty is not recorded. Among the remain-
der are two Saiva kings, Subhakara IV and his brother and successor Sivakara
III, two Vaisnava queens (paramavaisnavi), namely TribhuvanamahadevI I, wife of
Santikara I, and TribhuvanamahadevI II, wife of Subhakara IV, and three Saiva
queens (paramamahesvarl), Dandimahadevi, daughter of of Gaurimahadevi, wife
and successor of Subhakara V, Vakulamahadevi, another wife of Subhakara V, and
Dharmamahadevi, her successor and the wife of Santikara III. For the approximate
dating of these rulers I follow D.C. Sircar's position (1953; EI 29:26, pp. 183-184
and 189-191 [note 2]; Salomon 1998, pp. 190-191) that the Bhauma-Kara era be-
gan c. 831. The Neulpur grant of Subhakara I was issued in year 8 of this era (EI
15:1, 1. 30), i.e. c. 838, and the Terundia plate of Subhakara II in year 100 (EI 28:36,
1. 22), i.e. c. 931. The last recorded date is 204 in the reign of Vakulamahadevi, i.e.
c. 1035.
129 EI 29:30, Baud plate A of TribhuvanamahadevI, 11. 5-6: sutottamas tasya
samasrayafh] sriyah prasasad urvim susubhe subhakarah | kaler alahghyam
sukrtasrayaya yo viharam uccair vidadhe silamayam 'His superlative son
Subhakara, the resort of good fortune, [next] excelled ruling the land. To embody
his merit he built a lofty monastery of stone which the degenerate age could not
enter.'
130 Shastri 1916:G, 11. 7-9: nirantaraviracitavividhamathaviharaprasadapraba-
ndhaih purandarapurarohanasopanabandhair iva manditamahlmandalesv akha-
ndalaprabhavesu maharajesu vyatltesu 'After the passing of those Maharajas,
mighty as Indra, who adorned the land with the manifold sequences of Mathas,
Viharas, and temples that they constructed without interruption as though with
stairways for ascending to the heaven of Indra . . . '.
131 Misra 1934:1, Talcher plate of Sivakaradeva, 11. 25-29.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tronage of these kings that enabled Mahayana Buddhism to grow and prosper as
it did in Orissa, with the Tantric forms of that religion coming to the fore from
the eighth century. 132 This efflorescence is attested by both archaeology and tex-
tual evidence. Excavations of the Ratnagirimahavihara in the Cuttack district,
not far from Guhesvarapataka, the Bhauma-Kara capital at or near the modern
Jajpur, have revealed that this foundation underwent phenomenal expansion up
to the twelfth century, 133 and this is only the foremost of several Buddhist sites
in Orissa in which Tantric Buddhism is evident in the surviving statuary 134 The
extremely high quality of Ratnagiri's stone-work renders it improbable that it
was not a royal foundation. We have at least one Tantric text that reports that it
was written here: the Samvarodaya nama Mandalopayika of Bhuvacarya, which
survives in a Nepalese manuscript copied in 1050 in the Manadevamahavihara
(Chuka Bahah); 135 and a manuscript of the Vimalaprabhd, the great commen-
tary on the Kdlacakratantra, penned in the early decades of the twelfth century,
in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Harivarman, has a postscript in another
hand added seven years later which locates the manuscript not far from Ratna-
giri near the Benga river. 136 Indeed Ratnagiri had a particularly close associa-
tion with the propagation of that Tantra according to the Tibetan account of the
132 m itra 1981, pp. 20-21. Xuanzang reports in the early seventh century that Bud-
dhism was the principal faith of the region, with some 100 monasteries and 10,000
monks, all following the Mahayana; Xiyuji, p. 204.
133 Mitra 1984, p. 225-232. On the phases of construction at Ratnagiri see Brown
1978. On the successive phases of the Mantranaya manifest in the images that
have survived at Ratnagiri and other Orissan sites see Linrothe 1999, pp. 53-57,
70, 108-111, 125-128, 168-169, 195-198, 251-255, 280-283, and 287-288.
134 Notable are the nearby sites of the Madhavapuravihara at Udayagiri and and the
Candradityavihara at Lalitagiri. On Udayagiri see Bandyopadhyaya 2007; and
on Lalitagiri see Chauley 2000; and IAR 1985-6, pp. 62-63; 1986-87, pp. 64-67;
1987-88, pp. 88-90; 1988-89, pp. 65-66; 1989-90, pp. 77-80; 1990-91, pp. 54-55.
135 Samvarodaya f. 56v3-4: srlmadratnagirau sthitva sarvasattvarthahetuna | krte-
yam mandalopayika bhuvaca<r>yena dhimata | srlsamvarodaya nama mandalo-
payika *samapta (corr. : samaptah Cod.) || • || samvat a cu *prosthapadakrsnaca-
turthyam (prosthapada conj. : pretipada Cod.) rajadhirajapa[ram]esvaraparama-
bhattarakasribaladeva + + vijayaraj<y>e likhitam \ srimanadevamaha*vihariyasa-
kyabhiksusadhusridevasya (vihariya conj. : vihare Cod.) pustakam *<| yad atra
punyam tad bhavatu> (diagn. conj.) matapitrgurupadhyayasakalasattvarase<r>
anuttara<jnana>phala*praptaya iti (conj. : prapnoti Cod.).
136 Shastri 1917, pp. 79-80 (ASB MS 10766). The manuscript is dated by the scribe
in year 39 of the reign of Maharajadhiraja Harivarman, on whom see Majumdar
1971, pp. 209-210. Colophon: maharajadhirajasrimat-harivarmadevapadiyasam-
vat 39 | suryagatya asadhadine 39. The postscript: satcatvarimsatigate vatsare
harivarmanah \ maghasya krsnasaptamyam ekadasadine gate || mrtaya cuncaduka-
ya gauryd svapnena drstaya | kanisthahgulim adaya *prstayedam (corr. : prstha-
yedam Shastri) udlritam | purvottare disobhage bemganadyas tatha kule | \pacca-
tvam bhasitavatah] saptasamvatsarair iti.
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The Saiva Age
history of the transmission of its teachings maintained in the lineage that de-
scends from Rva chos rab in the early twelfth century For that relates that the
Vimalaprabhd was transmitted by an emanation of Manjusri to Pandita Cilu, a
native of Orissa trained at the Ratnagiri monastery and reached Rva chos rab
after being passed on through five intermediaries in Bengal and Bihar. 137 A tra-
dition that Cilu studied the Kdlacakratantra in the Ratnagirimahavihara before
seeking the Vimalaprabhd is recorded by Gzhon nu dpal. 138
The Candras of South-East Bengal
As for the Candras, they used the wheel of the Buddha's teaching (dharma-
cakram) as the seal-symbol on their charters; the Pascimbhag copper-plate grant
of Sricandra I (r. c. 925-75) describes both this king and his predecessor Trailoky-
acandra as paramasaugatah; 139 and his Rampal and Madanpur copper-plate
grants describe Suvarnacandra, the predecessor of Trailokyacandra (r. c. 900-
925), as a bauddhah 'a follower of the Buddha's teachings'. 140 After Trailokya-
candra came Sricandra (II), Kalyanacandra, Ladahacandra, and Govindacandra.
The Mainamati plates of Ladahacandra and Govindacandra (r. c. 1000-1020 and
c. 1020-1045) provide these names and reveal that the last two were parama-
saugatah. 141
The Khadgas of Samatata
We have epigraphical evidence of three successive generations of kings of the
Khadga line ruling the Samatata region of southeast Bengal from about 625 into
137 OROFINO 1994, pp. 17-23; Blue Annals, p. 755.
138 Blue Annals, p. 755.
139 EI 37:51, 11.25-26.
140 EI 12:18, 1. 6; EI 28:9, 1. 8; and Majumdar 1971, p. 201.
141 EI 38:35, no. 1, 11. 35-36; no. 2, 11. 6-7; no. 3, 11. 33-34. As for Purnacandra (r. c. 850-
875), there is no explicit evidence of his religious persuasion. MAJUMDAR (1971,
p. 201) argues that since it is said in the Rampal copper-plate that Suvarnacandra,
his son, "became a follower of the Buddha" (EI 12:18, 11.5-7) it is probable that
before him the family was non-Buddhist. This is not accurate, since the text says
not that he became a Buddhist but only that he was one: buddhasya yah sasaka-
jatakam ahkasamstham bhaktya bibharti || bhagavan amrtakaramsuh | candrasya
tasya kulajata itiva bauddhafh] putrah sruto jagati tasya suvarnacandra!} 'His son
was Suvarnacandra, famed in the world, a Buddhist as though [simply] because he
was born in the lineage of the Moon (/the Candra lineage), which out of devotion to
the Buddha displays his incarnation as a hare in its markings'. The allusion here
is to the story exemplifying the Buddhist Perfection of Generosity (danaparamita)
that the Buddha gave away his own body as food when he was a hare in a former
life, the sasajatakam. The immediately preceding verse, which is devoted to Purna-
candra, says nothing substantive about him but only that his name is found as that
of the first of the kings of this dynasty in Prasastis and other inscriptions.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the early years of the eighth century. Though the inscriptions do not include the
epithet paramasaugatah they do speak of these rulers in equivalent terms. The
first, Khadgodyama, is described in an inscription of his great-grandson Rajaraja
as having conquered the earth after declaring his intense devotion to the Three
Jewels: the Buddha, his teachings, and the Sahgha. 142 The same inscription tells
us that Rajaraja gave land to these three; 143 and another that Devakhadga, the
father of Rajaraja, made a donation to the same for the longevity of his son. 144
We have no evidence of any support given to Saivism by these kings themselves.
But a pedestal inscription on an image of the Saiva Goddess records that it was
gilded out of devotion by Prabhavati, Devakhadga's queen. 145
The Candras ofArakan and Miscellaneous Other Buddhist Kings of Eastern In-
dia
That there were Buddhists among the Candras ofArakan is evident from the
Mrohaung pillar inscription of Anandacandra, which has been dated around the
end of the third decade of the eighth century 146 This gives a list of the names
and reign-durations of the kings who preceded him from c. 380 onwards with
an interruption of unspecified length. After this interruption come the rulers
of the Candra dynasty down to Anandacandra himself, spanning in this second
142 Ashrafpur plate B (Laskar 1907), 11. 2-4: trailokyakhydtaklrtau bhagavati sugate
sarvalokfe] + + + taddharme sdntarupe bhavavibhavabhiddm yogindm yoga*gamye
(corr. : gamya Ed.) | tatsahghe cdprameye vividhagunanidhau bhaktim dvedya
gurvlm srlmatkhadgodyamena ksitir iyam abhito nirjitd yena 'Khadgodyama, who
conquered this earth in all directions after declaring his intense devotion to the
Lord Buddha, whose glory has been declared throughout the three worlds, among
all men . . . , to his tranquil teachings that can be realized by Yogins who [therebyl
break the power of [transmigratory] existence, and to his numberless Sangha, the
repository of manifold virtues'.
143 Ashrafpur plate B (Laskar 1907), 11. 6-7: tatsuto rdjardjah dattam ratna-
traydya tribhavabhaya*bhide (conj. : bhidd Ed.) yena ddnam svabhumeh 'His
[Devakhadga's] son, who made a gift of his land to the Three Jewels that elimi-
nate the fear of the three worlds'. To give to the Three Jewels is, I surmise, to make
a grant to be divided between the Buddha for the building or maintenance of Bud-
dhist shrines (gandhakuti) and Stupas, the Dharma for the copying and teaching of
sacred texts, and to the Sangha for its sustenance and comfort.
144 Ashrafpur plate A (Laskar 1907).
145 EI 17:24,4, 11. 1-2: taddtmajo ddnapatih pratdpT srldevakhadgo vijitdrikhadgah
| rdjhas tasya mahddevT mahisi srlprabhdvati \ sarvdnipratimdm bhaktyd
hemaliptdm akdrayat 'His son was the majestic donor (ddnapatih) Devakhadga,
whose sword had defeated his enemies. The chief consort of that king, Mahadevi
Prabhavavati, had [this] image of Sarvani gilded'. The word ddnapatih is the stan-
dard Buddhist term for one who gives to monks, the Dharma, or the Buddha. The
image (Huntington 1984, fig. 26) was found in the village of Deulbadi, near
Comilla, together with a Surya and small Lirigas, all of brass.
146 D.C. Sircar in EI 32:11, p. 1071-108.
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The Saiva Age
sequence a total of three hundred and fifty years. For most of his ancestors we
are given no information other than their names and the lengths of their reigns,
but the record is more forthcoming as it approaches the time of Anandacandra
himself. Vajrasakti (r. c. 649-665) is said to have died and gone to the world
of the gods endowed with [the Buddhist perfections (paramitah) of] generosity,
morality and the rest, and his successor Dharmavijaya (665-701) is said to gone
to the same, this time defined as the Buddhist Tusita heaven, as a result of his
firm commitment to the Three Jewels. 147 Two short inscriptions from Vesali of
the time of his ancestors Niticandra (r. c. 520-575) and Viracandra (r. c. 575-
578) tell us that the wife of the former, queen Savitam-Candrasri, was a lay
Buddhist (paramopdsikd) and that the latter established a hundred Stupas. 148
As for Anandacandra, he calls himself a lay Buddhist and devotes nine verses to
detailing his works of Buddhist piety, which included building many monasteries
with his own name, establishing precious images of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and
such [Mahayanist] goddesses as Cunda, having hundreds of Buddhist scriptures
copied, and giving to many monks from various lands, which is to say, that he
fulfilled to the best of his ability his duty to honour each of the Three Jewels. 149
Yet even this devoted patron of his faith did not neglect to extend his support
to the followers of other religions in his realm. He tells us that although he is a
Buddhist he desires the good of all beings, lest his cultivation of the Buddhist Per-
fection of Generosity (danaparamita) be incomplete, and so has established four
Mathas for the housing of fifty brahmins, providing them with land and workers,
and two others, the Anandesvaramatha and the Anandamadhavamatha, whose
names reveal that they were associated with a Siva and a Visnu established with
his name. 150 Moreover, a fragmentary copper-plate inscription (EI 37:13) from a
147 Inscription of the western face of the pillar at the Shittaung Pagoda, Mrohaung,
Arakan (JOHNSTON 1944:A), vv. 37c-40: vajrasaktis tata<h> [khjyato raja deva-
nvayodbhavah || pratipalya jagat sarvam rajyam sodasavatsaram | danasiladi-
samyukto devalokam. sa yatavan \\ sridharmajayasamyukto lokanugrahatat-
parah | tatpascad abhavad dhirah sridharmavijayo nrpah || sattrimsad abdany
upabhujya rajyam dharmena nitya ca jayena caiva \ ratnatrayanusmaranabhi-
yogat sa devalokam tusitam prayatah .
148 EI 32:11, no. 1, 11.3-4: devisavitam-candrasrlya nama paremopasikasya; EI 32:11,
no. 2, 11. 1, 3—4: satyadharmmanaragena krtam svarthena bhubhuja . . . srivira-
candradevena mahimandalamandanam | dharmmadhigatarajyena buddhastupa-
satam krtam.
149 Johnston 1944:A, vv. 46-54.
150 Johnston 1944:A, vv. 55-56: pahcasadbrahmanavasam ksetrabhrtyasamanvitam
| vadyavadakasamyuktam karitam mathacatustayam || somatTrthadvijava.se
mathas canandamadhavah \ anandesvaranamapi naulakk[e] ca matha<h> smrtah.
The practice of establishing a Visnu with the founder's name followed by -madhava
(as an alternative to the standard -svamin) is in accordance with textual pre-
scription; see Somasambhu, Brunner 1998, p. 311 (v. 48), =Kriyakandakramavall,
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
site near Mrohaung recording a donation by queen Kimmajuvdevi of a village to
a Buddhist monastery founded by herself begins by relating six generations of
the ascendants of her husband the king. Unfortunately the names of this king
and his ancestors have been lost through the scissoring off of strips from the top
and right hand side of the plate. However, what remains conveys the unexpected
information that all these kings were paramamahesvarah. The editor of the in-
scription assigns it to the sixth century on the grounds of its close palaeographic
similarity to the grants of Niticandra and Vlracandra, and argues that if the first
of the six kings was, as is likely, Dvehcandra, the founder of the Candra dynasty,
then the king in question was Niticandra's father Bhuticandra (r. c. 496-520). 151
Viracandra, he argues, is excluded by the fact that one of the two Vesali inscrip-
tions records his patronage of Buddhism. However, that a king should give to
Buddhism and at the same time be declared a paramamahesvarah in documents
issued by the royal chancellery is quite within the bounds of possibility, as we
have seen.
Other royals of eastern India who are identified as paramasaugatah in our
period — apart from the imperial Palas, to whom I shall turn presently — are
Bhavadeva of Devaparvata in Samatata (r. c. 765-780), the founder of the
Buddhist monastery Bhavadevamahavihara at Pattikera, modern Mainamati,
Rajyapala of the Kamboja dynasty of Priyahgupura in the tenth, Madhusena,
the Sena king of Gauda, in the thirteenth, and, in Orissa, Udayavaraha of
the Mayuravamsa at some time in the tenth to twelfth, the Nandodbhava
Dhruvananda of Jayapura, the successor of the paramamahesvarah Devananda
II, in the late tenth, and Kantideva of Harikela in the ninth. 152 The inscription
that tells us that the last was paramasaugatah also conveys that Buddhism was
the faith of his grandfather Bhadradatta. After a benedictory verse in praise of
the Buddha it begins the eulogy of the donor's forebears with this king, saying
that his devotion to the Buddha had intensified his power and that he had
[thereby] conquered all his enemies. His son Dhanadatta, the donor's father, is
ff. 72v7— 73rl: svamyantam madhavantam va kartrnamnd ca samyutam | dharayen
ndma devasya visnoh sthapanam iritam 'He should bestow a name on the deity
conjoined with the name of the patron and ending in -svamin or -madhava. I have
[thusl explained the installation of Visnus'.
151 D.C. Sircar, EI 37:13, p. 64.
152 Sircar 1983a, Supplements, 11. 42-43 (Bhavadeva); Mitra 1971, p. 245 (Bhavade-
vamahavihara). EI 41:22, 11. 19-20 (Rajyapala); the final colophon of ASB, MS
40785 dated in 1289; see Shastri 1917, p. 117 (Madhusena). Shastri 1920, p. 243,
11. 2-3, 6 (Udayavaraha). Tripathy 1930, p. 466, 1. 24 (Dhruvananda). EI 29:26,
11. 25-26 (Devananda). EI 26:45, 1. 14 (Kantideva). The exact location of Harikela
is uncertain, but it may be placed with some confidence in the area of Chittagong,
that is to say, near Samatata in the direction of Arakan.
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The Saiva Age
praised only for his learning in poetry, the Epics, and the Puranas. Mention is
made not of his religion but of that of his wife Bindurati, who is said to have
been a devotee of Siva. 153
The Pala Emperors and the Great Monasteries of Eastern India
With the Pala emperors we come to what appears to be the most robustly
Buddhist of all the dynasties of our period. Like the Candras of southeast Bengal
they chose the wheel of the Buddha's teaching (dharmacakram) as the seal-
symbol on their charters; they began their inscriptions with obseisance to the
Buddha; and the following among them appear with the epithet paramasaugatah
in the lacunose record of inscriptions and manuscript colophons: Dharmapala
(r.c. 775-812), Devapala (r.c. 812-850), Mahendrapala (850-865+), Narayana-
pala (r.c. 865+-917), Vigrahapala II (r. c. 972-977), Mahipala I (r. c. 977-1027),
Nayapala (r. c. 1027-1043), Vigrahapala III (r.c. 1043-1070), Ramapala (r.
c. 1072-1126), and Madanapala (r. c. 1143-1161). 154
Under these rulers eastern India witnessed an extraordinary development
' EI 26:45, 11. 3-: . . .jayaty udaro durvaramaravisarasya jayl jinendrah || tad-
bhaktibalitasaktir bhujadvayaurjityavijitaripudarpah | sa jayati dharmaikaratah
khyatah sribhadradatto yah || tasya subhasitabharatapurdnaramdyanarthavit
tanayah \ namna sridhanadattah prakatitamahimanvayo yo 'bhut || tasya gauri
mahabhubhrtsuta budhagurustutd \ patni binduratir ndma yd babhuva sivapriyd
'Victorious is the foremost of the Jinas, the exalted one who conquered the multi-
tude of Maras so hard to ward off. His power intensified by devotion to him, the
pride of his enemies overcome by the strength of his two arms, solely devoted to
the Dharma, victorious is the famous Bhadradatta. His son was Dhanadatta. He
understood the meaning of elegant poetry, the Mahabharata, the Puranas, and the
Ramayana, and his uninterrupted greatness was made manifest [to all]. His wife
was Bindumati, the fair-skinned daughter of a great king, praised by the learned
and her elders, a devotee of Siva'.
Dharmapala: EI 4:34, 11. 29-30; EI 17:17, 11. 24-25; EI 18:30, 1. 28. Devapala: EI
17:17, 11. 24-25; EI 18:30, 1. 29. Mahendrapala: EI 42:2, 11. 30-31. Narayanapala:
Sircar 1983a:17, 11.28-29. Vigrahapala II: EI 29:1A, 11.27-28. Mahipala I: EI
14:23, 11.29-30; EI 29:1, 1.27; a pedestal inscription (HUNTINGTON 1984, pp. 221-
222). Nayapala: colophon of a MS transcribed in Bendall 1883, p. 175. Vigra-
hapala III: EI 15:18, 1.23; EI 29:1B, 11.26-27; EI 29:7, 11.24-25; MS colophon
transcribed in Bendall 1902, pp. 232-233 (because the date of copying is said
here to be the 26th year of the reign of Vigrahapala this can only refer to Vigra-
hapala III). Ramapala: Regmi 1965-1966, Pt. 1, p. 148 (MS colophon); colophon
oiKubjikamata, NAKMS 1-1633, NGMPP B25/22 (transcribed in GOUDRIAAN and
Schoterman 1988, p. 6); a pedestal inscription (Huntington 1984, pp. 233-234).
Madanapala: Mukherji and Maity 1967:30, 11.31-32. The dates of the reigns
given here are those proposed by D.C. Sircar (1975-1976), with the addition of
those of Mahendrapala. The existence of a Pala Mahendrapala, son and successor
of Devapala, was established only with the publication of the Malda District Mu-
seum copper-plate charter of that king in 1992 (EI 42:2) by K.V. Ramesh and S.
SUBRAMONIA Iyer, following its discovery in 1989.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
of Mahayana Buddhism in all its branches, particularly in the Tantric Way of
Mantras (Mantranaya), 155 which if not entirely the product of this region was
very largely so; and this immense creativity, whose products formed in due course
the basis of the Buddhism of Inner Asia, was nurtured and refined in a num-
ber of major monasteries, of which the most eminent were those of Nalanda,
Vikramaslla, Somapura, Trikatuka, Uddandapura, and Jagaddala. 156 That the
155 rp^g rj er g e edition of the Tripitaka contains 486 works (Toh. 360-845) in the
section of the Kanjur devoted to scriptural Tantric works and 2606 (Toh. 1180-
3785) in the section of the Tenjur devoted to works of Tantric scholarship, com-
prising commentaries on the Buddhist Tantras and works setting out observances
(Sadhana, Bali, Pratistha etc.) based on them. All claim to be translations of
Sanskrit originals and this claim is true in the great majority of cases. In ad-
dition there are numerous works surviving whole or in citation in Sanskrit that
appear not to have been translated into Tibetan; and some of these, such as
the Gudhapadd of Advayavajra, the Mandalopdyikd of Padmasrimitra, the Va-
jrajvdlodayd of Anandagarbha, the VajravdrdhTkalpa, the Sarvadevasamdgama,
and the Herukasddhana of Kalyanagarbha, have been used in this study.
156 rp^ e Nalandamahavihara was located in Bihar about 55 miles southeast of Patna,
with the Uddandapuramahavihara close by. The Vikramasilamahavihara was very
probably at Antichak in the Bhagalpur District of Bihar about 19 miles from
Bhagalpur town. No evidence conclusively etablishes this. But the huge size of the
monastery excavated at Antichak severely narrows the field of known possibilities;
and there is suggestive archaeological evidence: a copper seal was uncovered in the
ruins of the monastery with the legend vikramasya (IAR, 1973-4, p. 9) and a dam-
aged inscription on a Stupa there contains the syllables vikrama. . . (HUNTINGTON
1984, pp. 125-126). The use of Vikrama for Vikramaslla is seen in Anupamavajra's
Adikarmapradipa; see here p. 91. That the name of the monastery was Vikrama-
slla rather than Vikramasila, as it appears in some secondary sources, is clear from,
e.g., the scribal colophon of a manuscript of Vajragarbha's Hevajratantrapindartha-
tika that was penned there: srimadvikramasilamahdvihdre lekhapitam. The Soma-
puramahavihara was at Paharpur about 29 miles northwest of Mahasthan (ancient
Pundravardhana) in Varendri, the region of northern Bengal between the arms of
the Ganges and Karatoya rivers (Rdmacarita 3.10ab: apy abhito gangdkaratoyd-
narghapravdhapunyatamdm. The Jagaddalamahavihara too was in this region;
see Rdmacarita 3.7: . . . jagaddalamahdvihdracitardgdm | dadhatlm lokesam api
mahattdrodiritorumahimdnam '[the land (of Varendri)!, whose beauty was height-
ened by the Jagaddalamahavihara, which was home to Lokesvara, its extensive
glory proclaimed by [a] great [image of] Tara'. Its site has beeen tentatively iden-
tified as the mound at modern Jagdal in the Dhamoirhat Upazila of the Naogaon
District of the Rajshahi Division of Bangladesh. A one-season, small-scale exca-
vation of this mound was undertaken by Bangladesh's Department of Archaeology
in the winter of 1996. Though it revealed evidence of the presence of a Buddhist
monastery and unearthed a fine statue of Heruka and his consort, most of the site
was left untouched and nothing has been reported that raises to certainty the high
probability that this was the Jagaddalamahavihara. See Zakaria 1994 and Miah
1997/8. The location of the Trikatukavihara is as yet unknown, but Taranatha re-
lates a myth that on instructions from Mahakala king Devapala unearthed this
monastery beneath a sand dune when he was crossing Rara (=Radha) (HBI, p. 267;
Majumdar 1971, p. 525), the region of Bengal south of Varendri and west of the
Bhagirathi river, divided into Uttararadha, covering part of Birbhum District and
The Saiva Age
Palas' devotion to the Buddha was expressed, as we might expect, in the creation
and support of these great monastic universities is shown by terracotta seals
found amid their remains, and by the Rgya gar chos 'byung ('The Arising of the
Dharma in India'), a Tibetan account of the history of Indian Buddhism written
in 1608.
Taranatha, the author of this work, tells us that he wrote it on the basis
of three Sanskrit sources that are now lost or inaccessible. The first is an un-
named work in 2,000 verses by a scholar of Magadha named Sa dbang bzang
po, that is to say, Ksmendrabhadra or a synonym such as Dharanindrabhadra.
This covered the history of the religion up to the time of the Pala king Ramapala
(r. c. 1072-1126). The second is the Buddhapurana, a work by Dbang pos sbyin
(Indradatta) in 1,200 verses, which went beyond Ramapala to cover the succes-
sor dynasty of the Senas of Gauda. It may therefore be supposed to have been
composed in that part of India, like the work of Ksmendrabhadra. The third
is a work of similar length covering the succession of Acaryas and written by a
brahmin scholar whom Taranatha calls Bhataghati. This name is implausible
as it stands. If, as is probable, it is is deformation of Vandyaghatiya, then it
identifies him as a member of a well-known Radhiya brahmin lineage of Ben-
gal (> Bandyopadhyaya, Banerjee). 157 Taranatha claims to have relied primar-
ily on the first of these three works, that is to say, for his account up to the
time of Ramapala, since that source went no further. 158 For the period of the
Senas, who succeeded the Palas, he must have relied on Indradatta alone. As for
Vandyaghatiya's account of the succession of Acaryas, it is probable that it con-
sisted of, or extended to, an account of the succession of the Tantric Acaryas of
Vikramasila from its foundation in the eighth century to its destruction around
1200 by the forces of Muhammad Bakhtyar Khalji. For he adds a section in the
manner of a supplement on the Acaryas of Vikramasila after his treatment of
the periods covered by his first two sources. His work, then, derives from Indian
tradition, and while his sources were evidently inaccurate for the early history
of Buddhism, we might expect them, particularly the work of Ksmendrabhadra,
the whole of Burdwan District, and Daksinaradha, covering Bankura District and
the non-coastal part of Midnapur District.
157 In the eulogy of Bhatta Bhavadeva, the learned minister of Harivarman (c. 1090+),
in a stone inscription from Bhubaneswar, Bhavadeva's mother Sangoka is said to be
the daughter of a Vandyaghatiya brahmin (EI 6:17B, v. 13). Other Vandyaghatiyas
are the Sarvananda who in 1159 wrote a commentary Tikasarvasva on the
Lihganusasana of Amarasimha, the great 16th-century Dharmasastrin Raghunan-
dana, author of the Smrtitattva (PlNGREE 1994, p. 341), Narayana (ft. c. 1681),
author of the Smrtisarvasva or Smrtitattva (PlNGREE 1994, p. 181), and Dvija
Laksmana, who translated the Adikanda of the Adhyatmaramayana into Bengali.
158 Rgya gar chos 'byung, pp. 215, 1. 22-214, 1.10; HBI, p. 350.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
to be more reliable in their account of what for them was recent history. 159 The
Rgya gar chos 'byung therefore deserves close attention.
Taranatha attributes to Dharmapala the building of the monastery of
Vikramasila and to Devapala the building of the monasteries of Somapura and
Trikatuka. 160 In this, however, he or his sources are confused. The claim that the
monastery at Somapura was founded by Devapala is contradicted by a terracotta
seal found at the site bearing the legend srisomapure sridharmmapdladeva-
mahdvihdre 'in the Mahavihara of Dharmapaladeva at Somapura', 161 thereby
indicating that it was founded not by Devapala but by his father Dharmapala.
Evidence also contradicts Taranatha's claim that it was Devapala that built the
Trikatuka monastery. For Haribhadra reports at the end of his Abhisamayd-
lamkdrdloka, his great commentary on the Astasdhasrikd Prajndpdramitd, that
he composed it in this monastery during the reign of Dharmapala and under his
patronage. 162
159 After his account of the Tantric Acaryas who held office successively at Vikramasila
Taranatha offers brief treatments of various topics not covered by these sources.
Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia and in maritime Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka
and the South is covered in ch. 39 and 40 respectively. On these topics, he says,
he has seen no comprehensive work. Ch. 41 treats the spread of Buddhism in the
Deccan following another lost work, the Flower-Garland, by a brahmin Manomati,
which, he says, contained a brief account of this subject. Ch. 42 covers the divisions
of the main Nikayas, evidently on the basis of such Indian treatments of the topic
as the Samayabhedoparacanacakra of Vinitadeva; ch. 43 examines what he rightly
considers to the muddled theories of the origin of the Mantranaya; and ch. 44 gives
some notes on the various Indian schools of image-makers. This is followed by the
account of his use of his sources. He notes that he has no written sources for the
later events in his account that were not covered in those works. For these events
he has relied on what he judged to be trustworthy oral reports.
160 See Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 160, 11. 9-10 (Somapuravihara); p. 161, 1. 11 (dpal tsha
ba gsum gtsug lag khang [Trikatukavihara]; cf. p. 167, 11. 7-8: tri ka *tu [corr. : ta
Ed.l ka tsha ba gsum kyi gtsug lag khang); p. 165, 1. 17 (Vikramasilavihara); HBI,
p. 266, p. 267, pp. 274-275.
161 ARE 1927-28, pp. 105-106; Dikshit 1938, pp.20 and 90, and plate UXh; N.G.
Majumdar in EI 21:16, p. 98.
162 Abhisamayalamkaraloka , p. 994, vv. 6— 7: khyato yo bhuvi punyakirtinicayo vidvaj-
janalamkrtas tasmin sarvagunakare trikatukasrimadvihare subhe | danal labdha-
mahodayasya karunadevasya dharmatmanah sanathyena sukhopadhananilaye
sthitva vivekaspade || krudhyatkunjarakumbhapithadalanavydsaktasaktyatmanah
punyabhyasakrtabhiyogajavasat sampatsamadayinah | rajye rajyabhatadivamsa-
patitasrldharmapalasya vai tattvalokavidhayini viracita satpanjikeyam maya 'I
have composed this excellent commentary that illuminates reality after taking up
residence in the splendid Trikatukavihara that is famed throughout the world, the
site of a mass of sacred edifices, adorned by learned men, a store of all the virtues,
where [all] the means of happiness are to be found, a place of insight, through the
support of the compassionate king Dharma[pala], who by means of donation has
achieved pre-eminence[; and I have done so] during the reign of this king, who born
in the dynasty that descends from Rajyabhata, full of power devoted to the rending
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The Saiva Age
In the case of the Somapura monastery it has been argued that we may
salvage Taranatha's credibility by concluding that Devapala did found this
monastery, as Taranatha claims, and that he gave it his father's name rather
than his own out of filial piety 163 This is indeed a practice of which there are
other examples, its purpose being to transfer to the person named the religious
merit generated by the creation and use of the foundation; but it is much more
probable that Taranatha is in error here, as he clearly is in the case of the
Trikatuka monastery For his history commits the fundamental error of revers-
ing the true sequence of the two reigns, placing that of Devapala before that of
Dharmapala. 164 His attribution of the founding of Somapura and Trikatuka to
Devapala rather than Dharmapala can, then, readily be explained as the result
of this reversal. We may therefore suspect that his attribution of the founding
of Vikramasila to Dharmapala suffers from the same dislocation and that its
true founder was his son Devapala. That this suspicion is correct is confirmed
by the Adikarmapradipa of Anupamavajra. For in its conclusion he tells us
that he compiled the work following the instruction of Dharmakara, a monk
whom he describes as "residing in the monastery called Vikrama constructed
by king Devapala". 165 Vikrama here is evidently a bhimavat contraction for
Vikramasila. 166 However, we may not conclude that everything that Taranatha
attributes to Dharmapala was Devapala's doing, and vice versa. He reports, for
of the swollen globes on the foreheads of the furious elephants [of his enemies], has
attained his glorious success by virtue of the dedication produced by his repeated
pious works'. For the use of sthitvd here cf. the final verse of the Samvarodaya
nama mandalopayika of Bhuvacarya cited here, p. 82.
163 N.G. Majumdar in EI 21:16, p. 98, fn. 5.
164 Rgya gar chos 'byung, chapters 29 (Devapala) and 30 (Dharmapala). Taranatha
gives the order Gopala > Devapala > Rasapala > Dharmapala; see Rgya gar chos
'byung, pp. 163-164: rgyal po de wa pa las lo bzhi bcu brgyad du rgyal srid byas |
de'i rjes su sras ra sa pa la rgyal srid lo bcu gnis byas 'King Devapala ruled for forty-
eight years. After him his son Rasapala ruled for twelve'. No Rasapala appears in
the accounts of the dynasty given in the Palas' inscriptions. The name is perhaps a
deformation of Rajyapala (r. c. 917-952), the successor of Narayanapala.
165 Adikarmapradipa, ed. Takahashi, p. 153: vihdre (T [metri causa] : vihare P, Ed.)
*nrpadevapalaracite (T, Ed. : ndapadevaracita P) *srlvikramakhye (T, Ed. : srlvi-
kramaksa P) sthitah srimatsaugatasasanaikatilakah khyato 'dvitiyah krti | *sila-
dhyas cirabrahmacaryacarito (P : siladhyasthiratattvadrstimahito T, Ed.) dharma-
kara!} *santadhls (P : sanmatih T, Ed.) Hasyddesakarah samasty anupamah (T, Ed.
: Hasyadesakaro babhuva 'nupamas P) tenadikarmoddhrtam '[This text on] the
initial observance has been extracted [from various sources] by Anupama, acting on
the instruction of Dharmakara, that renowned, unequalled scholar, richly endowed
with morality, of tranquil mind, a life-long observer of celibacy, a resident of the
Vikrama monastery constructed by King Devapala'.
166 On Vikrama for Vikramasila see here p. 88.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
example, Dharmapala's particular reverence for Haribhadra, 167 a relationship
that, as we have seen, Haribhadra himself attests. He also claims that Dharma-
pala created about fifty religious foundations {dharmadhikarah), and that the
majority, thirty -five, were for the study of the Prajnaparamita texts. 168 It is
at least probable that this bias was due to the influence of Haribhadra, given
the latter's close relationship with Dharmapala and the fact that he was the
pre-eminent scholar of his age in the exegesis of this literature.
As for the monastery of Uddandapura, which was located near the more
ancient monastery of Nalanda, Bu ston, in his history of Buddhism in India and
Tibet, completed in 1322, attributes its foundation to Dharmapala; 169 and the
167 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 167, 11. 7-9: de nas mi ring bar rgyal po dha rma pa las
spyan drangs ste | tri ka *tu (corr. : ta Ed.) ka tsha ba gsum kyi gtsug lag khang
du bzhugs nas | sher phyin nyan pa stong phrag mangpo la chos ston cing | brgyad
stong grel chen la sogs pa bstan bcos kyang mang du mdzad 'Not long after this
[Haribhadra! was invited by King Dharmapala. He stayed in the Trikatukavihara
and taught the Prajnaparamita to many thousands of hearers. He also composed
[his] detailed commentary on the Astasahasrika, and many other learned works';
HBI, p. 277.
168 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 165, 11. 14—17: rgyal srid du 'khod ma thag nas shes rob kyi
pha rol tu phyin pa 'chad pa po mams spyan drangs | slob dpon seng ge bzang po
la khyad par du mos | rgyal po 'dis spyir chos gzhi Inga bcu tsam btsug pa las | sher
phyin 'chad pa'i chos bzhi sum cu so Inga yod 'As soon as [Dharmapala] was reign-
ing he invited teachers of the Prajnaparamita. He had particular faith in Acarya
Haribhadra. This king set up about fifty religious foundations (dharmadhikarah)
and thirty-five of them were for the exegesis of the Prajnaparamita'; HBI p. 274.
For evidence that chos gzhi renders Sanskrit dharmadhikarah and that the latter
means 'a religious foundation' rather than 'a centre for the Doctrine', as it is trans-
lated in HBI p. 274 see here p. 104.
169 Obermiller 1986, p. 156-157. For the proximity to Nalanda of the monastery
of Uddandapura, which in Tibetan sources is known as Otantapuri, see Rgya gar
chos 'byung, p. 156, 1. 19: o ta nta pu ri dang nye ba na na le ndra zhes bya ba'i
gtsug lag khang zhig bzhengs 'He built the Nalanda monastery near Otantapuri';
HBI, p. 258. I use Uddandapura because this is what we find in a pedestal inscrip-
tion found at Bihar Sharif in the Patna District (Choudhary 1958, p. 65; Hunt-
ington 1984, p. 213, no. 19): deyadharmmo yam srinarayanapaladevarajye samvat
54 sri-uddandapuravastavyaranaka-uccaputratharukasya 'This is the pious gift of
Tharuka, son of Ucha, resident at the Great Monastery of Uddandapura, in year
54 of the reign of Narayanapaladeva'. Bihar Sharif is indeed near Nalanda. The
form Uddandapura also occurs in an inscription of the reign of Surapala recording
the installation of a Buddha image in the monastery there by a monk Purnadasa
(Choudhary 1958, p. 54). As for the Nalandamahavihara, it long predates the
Palas. Faxian (d. before 423) describes the major Buddhist edifices in this area
but is silent about Nalanda, which implies that if it existed it was certainly not
an institution likely to have been home to the great names of the early Mahayana.
The Da Tang Da Ciensi sanzang fashi zhuan, the biography of Xuanzang (ordained
between 609 and 617; left for India in 627 or 629; studied at Nalanda; d. 664)
written by his disciple Huili and later continued and edited by Yancong in 688, con-
tains an account of the history of Nalanda (Beal 1914, pp. 110-113), from which
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The Saiva Age
probability that this report is accurate is increased by the fact that he, unlike
Taranatha, knew that Dharmapala came before not after Devapala. Taranatha
assigns it to Devapala, probably in consequence of the aforesaid confusion,
though he also reports a tradition that it was founded by Dharmapala's father
Gopala, the first of the Palas. 170
Taranatha reports that Dharmapala adopted two persons as his preceptors:
Haribhadra and his pupil Buddhajnana. While the former was a master of the
Prajnaparamita, the latter was a renowned authority on the Tantric system
taught in the Guhyasamaja. 111 We are told that he performed the rituals for the
consecration of the Vikramasila monastery and was appointed as its Vajracarya.
We also learn that, having seen omens of the future ruin of the dynasty un-
der Dharmapala's grandson, he persuaded the king to institute a regular fire-
sacrifice (homah) to be performed under his guidance by the Tantric officiants
of this monastery with the purpose of ensuring that the dynasty would be long-
lived and consequently that Buddhism would be widely disseminated. It was
performed, we are told, for many years at huge expense. 172 Further evidence of
it appears that it began as a small Sangharama donated by the fourth Gupta king,
Kumaragupta Sakraditya, who reigned from 415 to 455. It then grew through the
addition of further Viharas until by Xuanzang's time it had become the foremost
Buddhist structure in India, famed throughout Buddhist Asia as a centre of learn-
ing. See the analysis of the history of the Nalandamahavihara on the basis of the
Chinese sources in KUWAYAMA 1988, pp. 7—11. For a plan of Nalanda with its row
of nine identical monasteries and several temples see Michell 1990, p. 246.
170 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 158, 11. 7-8: rgyal po go pa la 'di 'am de wapa la'i mtshams
su dpal o ta ntapuri'i gtsug lag khang bzhengs 'The Otantapuri monastery was built
in the period of this king Gopala or that of Devapala'; HBI, p. 262.
171 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 165, 11. 10-12: seng bzang yes shes zhabs bla mar bsten |
shes byin dang | dpal gsang ba 'dus pas phyogs thams cad gang bar mdzad | gsang
ba 'dus pa dang 'He served Haribhadra and [Buddhah'nanapada as his preceptors,
and filled all the directions with the Prajnaparamita and the Guhyasamaja'; HBI,
p. 274. See also Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 195, 11. 12-14: bi kra ma shi lar sngags
kyi rdo rje slob dpon chen po sangs rgyas ye shes zhabs dang | der rjes mar me
mdzad bzang pos bstan pa bskyangs At Vikramasila [firstl the Mantra- Vajracarya
Mahapandita Buddhajnanapada and then Diparikarabhadra protected the teaching
[of the Buddha]'; HBI, p. 325. This figure, known variously as Jnanapada (Ye shes
zhabs), Buddhajnana (Sangs rgyas ye shes), and Buddhasrljnana (Sangs rgyas dpal
ye shes), is a crucial figure in the history of the Mantranaya, being the source of the
"Jnanapada" school of Guhyasamaja exegesis and practice that was introduced into
Tibet by Rin chen bzang po. See Blue Annals, pp. 367-374 for an account of his life
and works, and their transmission to and in Tibet. Notable among his writings are
the Samantabhadrasadhana (Toh. 1856) and his commentary on the Guhyasamaja
(Toh. 1852).
172 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 168, 11. 6-12: rgyal po dha rma pa la la | khyod kyi tsha
bo'i dus nas rgyal srid jig pa'i mtshan ma yod pas | sbyin sreg gi cho ga chen po
zhig byas na yun ring du srid zin cing | chos kyang dar bar 'gyur gsungs pas | des
kyang dngul to la 'bum phrag dgu dang nyis stong gi yo byad phul bas | slob dpon
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Dharmapala's commitment to Buddhism is found in the Nesarika grant of the
Rastrakuta king Govinda III issued in 805, since that reveals that the ensign
depicted on his war banner was the Buddhist goddess Tara. 173
As for Gopala (r. c. 750-775), the father of Dharmapala, whom all our sources
make the first of the Palas, there is no evidence in the inscriptions that he
too was a Buddhist, unless it be his having been referred to in inscriptions of
Narayanapala (r. c. 860-917) and Vigrahapala III (r. c. 1043-1070) as a second
Buddha. 174 However, the Rajavyakarana claims him for the faith, saying that af-
ter a dissolute youth he converted to Buddhism and constructed various monas-
teries, Caityas, and temples. 175 Taranatha likewise claims that he served the
cause of Buddhism by founding many monasteries, both in Bengal, which he
ruled in the first part of his career, and Magadha, when he had added that great
province to his kingdom through conquest. 176 He also recounts a legend accord-
gtso bor gyur pa'i rdo rje 'dzin pa mams kyis lo mang por sbyin sreg mdzad 'He
told King Dharmapala: "There are signs that from the time of your grandson on-
wards the kingdom will be endangered. If you perform a great ritual of fire-sacrifice
you will ensure that the reign [of your line] will endure for many years and also
that the Dharma will be disseminated". And so [the kingl had the fire-sacrifice
done for many years by Vajradharas led by the Acarya [Buddhajnanapada], offer-
ing substances worth 902,000 tolas of silver'; HBI, p. 278. The ritual was evidently
a santihomah, a sacrifice for the averting of disaster. Such rituals are generic but
they are made to serve the specific purposes of the patron by writing these into the
formula of intention (samkalpah) that must be recited at the opening of any such
ritual; see Sanderson 2005a, p. 357-358 and fn. 22 in a discussion of the Tantric
Saiva ritual commissioned by the Khmer ruler Jayavarman II (r. 802-c. 835) "in
order that this land of Kambuja [Kambujadesa] should not continue to be a depen-
dency of Java and so that only one king should be univeral ruler [in this region]" (K.
235, Khmer, C 11. 71-75: vrah pada paramesvara ahjen thve vidhi leha leh kampi
kamvujadesa neh ayatta tajava ley leh ac ti kamrateh phdai karom mvay guh taja
cakravartti).
173 EI 34:19, 11.35-38, at the end of an enumeration of the ensigns (\rdja\cihnani)
siezed by Govinda III from his enemies, beginning with those of the Pandya
and Pallava kings: pandyadesadhipan matsyam vrsabham pallavesvarat |
. . .tdrdbhagavaHlm (em. :ti Ep.) khyatam dharmad bahgalabhumipat || ittham
etany athanyani cihnany adaya bhubhujam \ garudahkam jagattuhgo vyadhatta
sakalam jagat 'Thus by siezing these and other royal ensigns — the fish from the
king of Pandyadesa, the bull from the Pallava king . . . and the famous Tara from
Dharma[pala], the king of Bengal — [Govinda III] Jagattuhga placed the whole earth
under [the sway of] his Garuda'.
174 The Bhagalpur plate of Narayanapala (Hultzsch 1886), 11. 4-5 and the Bangaon
plate of Vigrahapala III (CHOUDHARY 1958, p. 83), 11. . 3-4: sa srimdn lokanatho
jayati dasabalo 'nyas ca gopaladevah.
175 Manjusriyamulakalpa 53.628-631.
176 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 156, 11. 18-21: sku che'i stod la bham ga la la dbang bs-
gyur | smad la ma ga dha yang dbang du bsnungs te \ o ta nta pu ri dang nye ba
nd le ndra zhes bya ba'i gtsug lag khang zhig bzhengs | yul chen po de gnyis su dge
'dun gyi sde mang du btsugs te bstan pa la mchod pa rgya chen po mdzad do 'In the
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The Saiva Age
ing to which Gopala, when not yet king, found a jewel and used it as the fee
for Tantric consecration from an Acarya. He then successfully propitiated the
Buddhist goddess Cunda following his instructions, 177 went to the monastery
of Khasarpana Avalokitesvara, 178 and successfully prayed to him for kingship,
which the deity promised he would obtain if he moved east.
In his account of Buddhism under the successors of Gopala, Dharmapala,
and Devapala, Taranatha gives us one more report of royal monastery building.
But unfortunately his sources seem to have been so misinformed in their pre-
sentation of the order and identity of these subsequent kings that it is no easy
task to discern the reign to which this building activity should be assigned. He
tells us that Mahapala, whom he claims to have been the son and successor of
Mahipala, built the Uruvasa monastery, described as a branch of the monastery
at Uddandapura, and founded Buddhist establishments at the monasteries of
Nalanda, Somapura, and Trikatuka. 179 Taranatha has his Mahipala rule for
first part of his life he governed Vangala. In the subsequent part he subjected Ma-
gadha. Near Uddandapura he built a monastery called Nalendra. By establishing
many divisions of the Sangha [in monasteries] in these two large regions he greatly
honoured the religion [of the Buddha]; HBI, p. 258.
177 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 155, 1. 14-156, 1. 18; HBI, pp. 257-258. Cunda, though she
appears not have been a major constituent of learned Tantric Buddhism, seems to
have been popular in the region. Two bronze statues of this goddess have been found
in Pala territory, one from Kurkihar cast in the reign of Mahipala I, and the other
from Nalanda, assigned by Huntington on stylistic grounds to the ninth century
(Huntington 1984, pp. 60-61, 226-227, and 144; figs. 61 and 169; wrongly giving
the name as Cunda); and there was a temple of Cunda in Pattikera (Mainamati)
near Comilla, which is illustrated in a manuscript of the Astasahasrika Prajna-
pdramitd (ULC MS Add. 1643, copied in 1015), as one of eighty-five illustrations of
Buddhist sacred sites, most in eastern India, with the legend pattikere cunddvara-
bhavane cunda (MlTRA 1971, p. 244). There are images of Cunda from Ratnagiri,
Udayagiri, and Achutrajpur in Orissa, Ellora in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Nepal;
see Shaw 2006, pp. 265-274; IAR 2001-02, Plate 114 (Udayagiri).
178 In HBI (p. 257) it appears as "the temple of drya * Khasarpana". But the Tibetan
states that it was a monastery: 'phags kha sa rpa na'i gtsug lag khang (Rgya gar
chos 'byung, p. 155, 11. 20-21). A Khasarpana located in Radha is mentioned in the
Zhib mo rdo rje of Dmar ston Chos kyi rgyal po (c. 1198-1259) as very famous in the
time of 'Brog mi, who died c. 1064 (Blue Annals, p. 72); see Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 86,
§4: rgyar gar shar phyogs ra da na 'phags pa spy an ras gzigs dbang phyug 'khar sa
pa ni bzhugs pa de grags pa che pas .... Perhaps this was the site of the monastery
referred to here.
179 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 175, 1. 2-7: o ta nta pu ri'i gtsug lag khang du nyan thos
kyi dge 'dun mams gtso bar mchod cing \ dge slong Inga brgya dang chos ston pa
Inga bcu la 'tsho bo sbyar | de yi Ian yag tu u ru ba sa zhes bya ba'i gtsug lag khang
bzhengs | deryang nyan thos pa se ndhapa Inga brgya re la 'tsho ba sbyor | bi kra ma
shi lar sngargyi srol de kagzung ste | mchod 'os kyi mthil du mdzad | dpal na la nddr
yang chos gzhi 'ga' re btsugs | so ma pu ri dang | na le ndra dang | tsha ba gsum kyi
gtsug lag khang la sogs par yang chos gzhi mang po btsugs '[Mahapala] honoured
principally the community of Sravakas in the Uddandapuravihara and [there] pro-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
fifty-two years and says that he died at about the same time as the Tibetan king
Khri ral, 180 that is to say, Khri gtsug lde brtsan also called Ral pa can, who
ruled from about 815 to 836; and his son Mahapala is assigned a reign of 41
years, 181 that is to say, up to about 900. Now, there are two Mahipalas known to
us from the epigraphical record, both of whom were much later, the first ruling
c. 977-1027 and the second c. 1070-1071; but there is no Mahapala. The similar-
ity with the name of his father raises the suspicion that one king Mahipala, no
doubt Mahipala I, the length of his reign agreeing closely with that attributed to
Mahipala by Taranatha, has become Mahipala and Mahapala, and that the re-
sulting two reigns, amounting implausibly to ninety-three years, served to bridge
a gulf of ignorance of the period between the great founders of the Pala empire
and Mahipala I, who restored the fortunes of the Palas after a period during
which, following Devapala, they had lapsed into insignificance, losing control of
Bengal and retreating into a core territory in Bihar around modern Patna. 182 It
is probable, then, that Taranatha's attribution to Mahapala of the expansion of
Uddandapura and the founding of Buddhist establishments at Nalanda, Soma-
pura, and Trikatuka is a distortion of a record of the pious works of Mahipala I.
The supposition is somewhat strengthened by the fact that Taranatha says that
the Kdlacakratantra was introduced during the latter half of Mahipala's life and
that it spread during the reign of Mahapala. 183 For it was during the reign of
Mahipala I that this new Tantric system emerged. 184
vided for five hundred monks and fifty teachers of the Dharma. As a branch of this
he built a monastery called Uruvasa. In this too he provided for five hundred Saind-
hava Sravakas. He accepted that the pre-existing system at Vikramasila should
remain unchanged; but he made [Uruvasa] the object of his greatest veneration. He
also established several religious foundations at Nalanda, and many others also in
Somapura, Nalendra, and the Trikatukavihara'; HBI, p. 289.
180 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 172, 11. 1-3: de nas rgyal po ba na pa la'i sras ma hi pa la
zhes pa byung | rgyal srid lo Inga bcu nga gnyis mdzad | rags rtsis su byas na rgyal
po 'di 'das tsam na | bod na btsan po khri ral yang sku 'das pa tsam gyi dus yin no
'Next, the son of Vanapala, called Mahipala, ruled for fifty-two years. By a rough
calculation this king died at the same time as King Khri ral in Tibet'; HBI, p. 284.
181 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 175, 1. 1: de 'i sras ni rgyal po ma ha pa la ste | 'dis rgyal
srid lo bzhi bcu zhe gcig mdzad 'His son was King Mahapala. He ruled for forty-one
years'; HBI, p. 289.
182 See Smith 1962, pp. 412-418; and Kulke in Kulke and Rothermund 1992,
p. 118.
183 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 175, 11. 7—9: rgyal po ma hi pa la'i sku tshe'i smad tsam na |
pi to a tsa ryas dus kyi 'khor lo'i rgyud spyan drangs te | rgyal po 'di'i dus su dar bar
mdzad 'The Acarya Pito introduced the Kdlacakratantra in the second half of the
life of King Mahipala and disseminated it during the time of this king [Mahapala]';
HBI, pp. 289-290. This Pito is no doubt the person elsewhere called Pindo (Bsod
nyoms); see Blue Annals, p. 756-757, 789; OROFINO 1994, p. 23.
184 Newman 1987 and 1998; Orofino 1994, p. 23.
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After Mahipala the monastic universities already established continued to
flourish, but Pala fortunes once again went into decline, and it is therefore not
surprising that Taranatha has no major royal benefactions to report during this
period. However, during the long reign of Ramapala (r. c. 1072-1126), the last
major ruler of this dynasty, the kingdom recovered, and we might expect this to
be reflected in a renewal of material patronage. It is tempting therefore to accept
the claim made by Hara Prasad Shastri in 1910 185 and repeated by many since
that time 186 that the Jagaddalamahavihara, 187 the one great monastery in the
Pala domains whose founder has not yet been identified, was the creation of this
monarch. But there is no evidence that supports this claim 188
Nor is there any that refutes it. In the introduction to the edition of the
Subhasitaratnakosa published by KOSAMBI and GOKHALE the former has
asserted on the strength of evidence provided by the latter that Ramapala's
coronation took place in this monastery, 189 in which case, of course, it could not
have been founded by him during his reign. But that too cannot be accepted.
The evidence cited is Gokhale's rendering of the colophonic verse at the end of
the *Bhagavatyamnyayanusarini vyakhya, a commentary on the Astasahasrika
Prajnaparamita which survives in Tibetan translation (Toh. 3811): 190 "This
vyakhya was composed by Raja-jagaddala-nivasi [which thus becomes the
writer's name] at the Jagaddala vihara, which was the place of Ramapala's
coronation". 191 But this rendering is wildly inaccurate. The meaning of the
Tibetan is: "I, a resident of the venerable Rajajagaddala [monastery], have
composed this commentary, a string of pearls (muktavali) [to be an adornment]
of the land protected by King Ramapala". 192 This does at least convey the
185 Ramacarita of Sandhyakaranandin, introduction, p. 9.
186 E.g. Mookerji 1951, p. 595; Rahul Sankrityayana cited by Kosambi in
Kosambi and Gokhale 1957, p.xxxviii; Krishnamacharya, p. 1 of his San-
skrit introduction to Tarkabhdsd (1942); MlTRA 1971, p. 16; cf. HUNTINGTON 1984,
p. 196.
187 It is referred to as a Mahavihara in the colophonic verse of Munisribhadra's Panca-
kramatippanl (munisribhadrena ciraj jagaddalamahdviharasadbhiksuna) and in
3.7 of the Ramacarita of Sandhyakaranandin (jagaddalamahaviharacitaragam).
188 Kajiyama 1998, p. 7.
189 Subhasitaratnakosa, p. xxxvii, fn. 8.
190 bCom Idan 'das ma'i man ngag gi rjes su 'brung ba zhes bya ba'i mam par bshad
pa, f. 320r2: mi yi dbang po ra ma pa las sa skyong mdzad pa'i <gnas kyi [Cone,
Peking]> mu tig phreng ba ni | dpal Idan rgyal po dza ga ta la gnas par byed pa
bdag gis mam bshad 'di byas so.
191 Subhasitaratnakosa, p. xxxvii, fn. 8.
192 Gokhale seems to have found his "coronation" in the dbang of mi yi dbang po
ra ma pa las. The word is used in Tantric texts as a short form for dbang bskur
'consecration' (abhisekah), as at rGyud spyi, p. 270, 1. 1. But in order to reach his
understanding of the phrase in which it occurs he has had to forget the mi yi that
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
valuable information that the monastery was a royal foundation, since the
Tibetan of its name dpal Idan rgyal po dza ga ta la, is evidently a translation
of srlmadrajajagaddala- , a form of the name confirmed by its occurrence in
Sanskrit at the end of Moksakaragupta's Tarkabhdsd, in which he informs us
that he too was a resident of this monastery (snmadrajajagaddalavihariya-). 193
But we remain ignorant of the king who founded it. We know that it existed in
the time of Ramapala, and it is not impossible that it was indeed the work of this
last great king of the dynasty; but no evidence of which I am aware precludes its
having been created by a predecessor.
Some idea of the scale of the Great Monasteries in the Pala domains is pro-
vided by Taranatha. He informs us that in the reign of Ramapala, even after
the decline from the time of the early Palas, there were one hundred and sixty
monks holding posts as Panditas at Vikramasila, and that there were about
a thousand monks permanently in residence, both there and at Uddandapura,
with many more assembling on the occasion of festivals. 194 We also learn that
when Vikramasila was founded its design incorporated one hundred and eight
shrines: a central temple housing a life-size statue of the Great Awakening
(Mahabodhi) 195 surrounded by fifty-three small temples dedicated to the inner
precedes — mi yi dbang po 'king', lit. 'lord of men', rendering Sanskrit nrpatih,
narendrah, or a synonym — , the fact that ra ma pa las after it is instrumental
not genitive, and the fact that the emphatic and separative particle ni that ends
the larger phrase of which this is part and marks it out as the subject militates
against its being taken as qualifying the monastery. The expression mu tig phreng
ba describing the commentary figuratively as a string of pearls is probably also in-
tended to convey its title by paronomasia, i.e. Muktavali, a title found elsewhere
in this literature, for example as the title of Ratnakarasanti's commentary on the
Hevajratantra. The author remains anonymous.
193 Tarkabhasa, p. 39. Kajiyama (1998, pp. 6-11) shows that Moksakaragupta was
active at some time after c. 1050 and before c. 1292.
194 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 189, 11. 13-19: bi lira ma shi lar pa ndi ta brgya drug cu
tsam re dang | gtan du du bzhugs pa'i dge slong stong re yod cing | mchod pa la sogs
pa'i dus su rab byung Inga stong re 'du | rdo rje gdan du rgyal pos tsho ba sbyar ba'i
theg chenpa bzhi bcu re dang | nyan thos kyi dge slong nyis brgya re rtag tu bzhugs
shing | dus dus su nyan thos kyi dge slong khri phrag re tshog pa byung | o ta nta
pu rir yang rtag tu dge slong stong phrag re bzhugs | theg pa chen chung gi ste gnyis
char yod cing | dus dus su rab tu byung ba mams 'dus pa stong phrag bcu gnyis re
'byung bar grags 'There were at least 160 Panditas in Vikramasila and 1000 monks
who were permanent residents. As many as 5000 renunciate monks gathered there
on the occasion of festivals and the like. At Vajrasana (Bodhgaya) 40 adherents
of the Mahayana and 200 Sravaka monks resided permanently, maintained by the
king. From time to time as many as 10,000 Sravaka monks congregated there. In
Uddandapura there were 1000 permanently resident monks, comprising adherents
both of the Mahayana and of the Hmayana. From time to time 12,000 renunciate
monks gathered there'; HBI, p. 313.
195 I take this to be an image of Sakyamuni attaining enlightenment seated beneath
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The Saiva Age
deities of the Mantranaya (gsang sngags nang gi lha khang chung ngu) and
fifty-four "common" temples {lha khang dkyus ma), that is to say, temples en-
shrining exoteric, non-Tantric images. The king, we are told, provided generous
allowances for the food and clothing of one hundred and eight Panditas, three
Vajracarya specialists to perform Bali offerings, rituals of image-installation, and
fire-sacrifices respectively, and three officials. The first is the 'Guardian of Duties'
(bya ba bsrung pa), perhaps an official appointed to ensure monks' adherence to
the various roles assigned to them in the running of the monastery. The second
is termed mysteriously 'Guardian of Doves' (phug ron bsrung pa), and the third
is the 'Supervisor of the Monastery's Subjects' {lha 'bangs kyi gnyer byed pa),
these being, perhaps, both the serfs or tenants that worked the monastery's es-
tates and the servants within the monastery itself. 196 Archaeological excavations
have revealed that the cell-lined square court of Vikramasila 197 measured 1073
feet on each side, that the entire site was spread over an area of more than one
hundred acres, 198 and that Dharmapala's monastery at Somapura (Paharpur)
was of similar design and plan and of only slightly smaller size, 199 as was the
monastery founded by Bhavadeva of Samatata at Pattikera (Mainamati). 200 We
also have some information concerning the scale of the monastery at Nalanda
during the early seventh century when the Chinese scholar Xuanzang was there.
According to the account written by his pupil Huili there were as many 10,000
the Bodhi tree, as in the case of the approximately contemporary principal image in
the central shrine of Monastery 1 at Ratnagiri, though that is somewhat larger than
life-sized, the figure seated in the lotus posture being over two metres in height. See
Harle 1994, p. 163; Huntington 1985, fig. 19.44. We see another example in the
central shrine at Udayagiri (IAR 1997-98, Plate 101; 1998-99, Plate 48).
196 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 165, 1. 17-p. 166,5; HBI, p. 275. The three specialists are
a gtor ma'i slob dpon, a rab gnas slob dpon, and a sbyin sreg slob dpon, i.e. a
balyacaryah, a pratisthacaryah, and a homacaryah.
197 On the reasons for identifying the monastery at Antichak with the Vikramasila-
mahavihara see p. 88.
198 Mitra in EITA, vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 403; IAR 1972-1973, pp. 4-5 (the western outer wall
shows a length of 330 metres; p. 5 gives a plan of the excavated structures); IAR
1973-4, pp. 8-9 (northern wall measures 330 metres).
199 Dikshit 1938, pp. 18-36. Plate I (general plan). He reports (p. 18) that the outer
quadrangle measures 822 feet externally on each side (according to Mitra in EITA,
vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 403, it measures 922 by 919 feet) and (p. 34) that the original
monastery was designed to accommodate some 600 to 800 monks and that in the
eleventh century the number of residents can have been no more than 400. The
massive central cruciform shrine-complex measures 386 by 352 feet.
200 This monastery is probably that known as the Salban Vihara, consisting like the
monasteries of Vikramasila and Somapura of a massive cruciform shrine within a
square enclosure which though considerably smaller than that of those monasteries
was nonetheless of great size, each side being 550 feet in length; see Mitra inEITA,
vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 402-403.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
monks there, all Mahayanists, either as permanent residents or visitors, and
over a 1000 learned scholars. 201
These royal monasteries are likely to have accumulated great wealth. The
tax-exempt agricultural lands granted to them at the time of their foundation
would have provided them with a substantial initial endowment: Huili reports
that Nalanda's was the revenue of about 100 villages; 202 and the wealth from this
source would no doubt have been augmented by subsequent land-grants 203 and
would certainly have been augmented by other votive donations, bequests from
the estates of deceased laymen, 204 and the profits of such non-religious activities
as banking and the provision of irrigation and other agricultural facilities. 205
No doubt they would also have benefitted from the riches accumulated by
individual monks in the form of the rewards (daksina) that they earned by giving
initiations, imparting instruction, installing images, consecrating monasteries
and temples, reciting sacred texts, and performing rites for protection, funeral
ceremonies, and the like. 206 Tibetan sources record the very large amounts of
gold which Indian and Tibetans required for such services. 'Brog mi agreed to
give the Indian Gayadhara 100 gold srang, some 3,750 grams, each year for five
years in return for the transmission of the esoteric Lam 'bras teachings; 207 Zur
po che sha kya 'byung nas offered 'Brog mi 100; 208 Rva lo tsa ba gave 100 srang
to the Nepalese Guru Bha ro phyag rdum for the Yamdri cycle instructions; Se
201 Beal 1914, p. 112
202 Beal 1914, p. 112
203
We have a record (EI 17:17: the Nalanda copper-plate of Devapala) of one such sub-
sequent land-grant in the case of the monastery at Nalanda. This records that in
the 35th year of Devapala, c. 847, five villages were assigned for the support of the
Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha of a new monastery (vihdrah) constructed at
this site by Maharaja Balaputradeva, the Sailendra king of Suvarnadvipa (Suma-
tra). That the regnal year is the 35th is the view of Sircar (1983, p. 79, note 38).
Hirananda Shastri read the numerals as 39 (EI 17:17, 1. 42).
204 The Mulasarvdstivddavinaya speaks of the validity of written wills in which
wealthy laymen transfer their entire estate to the the Sangha; see Gilgit
Manuscripts vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 140, 1. 14-15, 1. 1; and SCHOPEN 2004, p. 6. It also
sets out rules obliging monks to accept permanent endowments of cash (aksayanivt)
(Schopen, loc. cit.).
205 On the profit-making activities of Buddhist monasteries in the fifth and sixth cen-
turies in India and in China under the Northern Wei (386-534) see Liu 1994, pp.
120-158. As for banking, the Mulasarvdstivddavinaya requires the funds of per-
manent endowments (aksayanivt) for the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha to
be lent out on interest (vrddhih) (SCHOPEN 2004, pp. 6-7, 47-49, 53). On monas-
tic landlordism and the profitable management of irrigation works, in which local
farmers were given access to such facilities in return for a share of their crops as a
donation to the Sangha see Shaw and Sutcliffe 2003 and Gunawardana 1979.
206 p or ^g daksina for the Tantric funeral ceremony see here p. 102.
207 Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 90, Blue Annals, p. 207
208 Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 92
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The Saiva Age
tsha bsod nams rgyal mtshan gave 50 srang to the Nepalese KayasrI for the
precepts of the Nam mkha' skor gsum; Mar pa performed a rite to protect the
sons of some wealthy men and charged 10 gold srang for each son; 209 and the
hagiographies of early Tibetans who travelled to India to acquire initiation and
instruction abound in reports of the need to amass large quantities of gold for
this purpose. 210
It would be rash to assume that the fortunes that were garnered in this
way by Indian Acaryas were added directly to the resources of their monasteries.
A passage in the Mahavairocanabhisambodhitantra, a text produced in the sev-
enth century, at the beginning of the history of the Mantranaya as a fully-fledged
path within the Mahayana, 211 suggests that this was the case: 212
After the \santikd\homah the Mantrin should request from the disciples a fee
(daksina) of gold, silver, jewels, a stallion, an elephant, a mare, a cow, a bull, a
buffalo, cloth, and whatever else is fitting. At that time the disciples should give
the daksina to the Guru, respectfully, with faith, generating joy in their minds.
Or at any rate they should make the Guru entirely satisfied. After [the Mantrin,
that is to say, the Guru] has done this he should do a rite of self-protection and
then exhort the excellent disciples as follows: All the Buddhas teach that this is a
field for [the sowing of] merit for the benefit of all living beings. Therefore give to
the Sahgha, [for it is] vast in its pure virtues.
But it is striking that references to the Sarigha are not found in this context in
later texts, which only specify the goods that should be given.These are much the
same as in the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi, though Diparikarabhadra, setting
out the procedure for initiation with the Mandala of the Guhyasamaja, adds land
209 Blue Annals, pp. 377, 395, and 400.
210 See, for example, pp. 399-401 of the account of the life of Mar pa in the Blue Annals.
211 The earliest certain evidence of the text is its Chinese translation by
Subhakarasimha and Yijing registered in A.D. 725 (TaishS 848). But Hodge
(2003, pp. 14-15) points out that Yijing's Xiyuqiufaguosengzhuan ('Record of Em-
inent Monks who Sought the Dharma in the West') reports that the monk Wuxing,
his contemporary in India, had died as he was setting out to return to China in
674, that texts he had collected were forwarded to China, and that three important
Tantras are listed among these works: the Subahupariprccha, the Susiddhikara,
and the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi.
212 rNampar snang mdzad chenpo mngon par byang chubpa'i rgyud, f. 173r4— 7: sbyin
sreg rjes la sngags pa yis | slob ma mams la yon bslang ba | gser dang dngul dang
rin chen dang | rta dang de bzhin glang po dang | rta mo ba lang ma he gos | gzhan
yang dngos po ci yang rung | de tshe slob mas gus par ni | dad pa rab tu Idan pa yis
| sems la dga' ba bskyed nas su | bla ma ni yon bdul lo | yang na ci nas bla ma de |
rab tu mgu bar 'gyur bar bya \ de Itar byas nas bdag bsrung ste \ slob ma de pos bsgo
ba ni \ 'di ni bsod nams zhing yin zhes | sems can kun gyi don gyi phyir | skyob pa
mams ni kun gyis gsungs \ mam dag yon tan rgyas pa yi \ dge 'dun la ni kun gyis
by in.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
at the head of the list, 213 and the scripture Laghusamvaratantra goes so far as in-
clude a rastram, which I take to mean [the revenues of] 'a district' or 'sub-district'
of a kingdom and therefore to be envisaging the gift of a monarch. 214 Moreover,
the Mulasarvastivadavinaya, which was the predominant code of monastic law
in eastern India and was thence adopted in Tibet, recognizes that monks had
private property and that there could be great differences of wealth owned by
individuals within the Sarigha. However, it also insists that such property does
not go to the king when a monk dies, as brahmanical law required in the case of
those who die without offspring, but remains within the monastic community to
which he belongs. 215 Of course, a wealthy Guru could also donate his wealth to
213 Guhyasamajamandalavidhi, f. 16vl-2, v. 375c: bhugajadisuvarnadau 'land,
an elephant or [other mount], gold, and other [valuables]'. The Mrtasugati-
niyojana of Sunyasamadhivajra includes houses, land, and male and female
slaves among the gifts that should be given to an officiant who performs
the Tantric funerary ceremony (antyestih): yojanako 'pi svavibhavdnurupam
vastralamkarasayanasanagrhaksetradasTdasadikam daksinam acarydya sadaram
dadyat (f. 4r2-3).
214 Laghusamvara f. 4rl-3 (3.11-14b): tatas tu gurave dadyat tathagatoktadaksinam
| nirjatyam suvarnasatasahasram ratnani vividhani ca || 3.12 vastrayugmasatam
caiva gaja vajT rastram eva ca | karnabharana katakam ca kanthikdhgulikais ca
samuttamam || 3.13 yajhopavita sauvarnam svabhdrydm duhitam api | ddsa dasi
bhagnim vdpi pranipatya nivedayet 'Then he should give to the Guru the daksind
prescribed by the Tathagata. After prostrating himself he should give 100,000
[Palas] of the most precious gold, jewels of various kinds, 200 lengths of cloth, an
elephant, a horse, and a rastram, earrings, bracelets, necklaces, rings, and a crown,
a golden caste-thread, his wife, his daughter, a male slave, a female slave, or his
sister'. The use of the term rastram for 'a district' or 'sub-district' is seen in in-
scriptions; see Sircar 1966, pp. 277-278. My translation of the passage follows the
text and interpretation of the commentator Bhavabhatta. The reading nirjatyam,
which he interprets as 'most precious', is suspect. The MS (Laghusamvara, f.
4r2) reads the much more satisfactory niryatya 'having given', as does the com-
mentator Kambalapada (Sddhananidhi, f. Ilv4); and this is also the reading seen
in f. 54v3-5 of the Samvarodayd ndma mandalopayika of Bhuvacarya of Ratna-
giri in Orissa (see here p. 91), in the Nepalese codex unicus of 1056. See also
Catuspithatantra f. 60vl-2 (4.1.46-47), which includes a house, land with rights
to mine, and grain: tato gurudaksinam dadya sisya bhdvena nityasah \ dtmapatnim
saputram vd bdndhavaih saha cetikaih | hasti asva gavadinam grha ksetras ca go-
travan || sauvarna rajata tamram vastradi vrihidhanyakaih . The Vimalaprabha
on Kdlacakratantra, Abhisekapatala v. 198 explains that verse as meaning that the
initiate should promise always to give to his Guru one sixth of all his inherited and
self-acquired wealth in the form of gold, jewels, grains and the like, and a sixth of
all his livestock. It adds that he is required to give his wife to the Guru five times
each month (vol. 2, p. 144, 11. 17-22).
215 The inheritance of the property of deceased monks is treated in the Mulasarvasti-
vadavinaya in the Civaravastu (Gilgit Manuscripts vol. 3, pt. 2, pp. 113—148). Par-
ticularly relevant in this context is its discussion of the case of the monk Upananda,
who died leaving 300,000 in gold (pp. 117-121). King Prasenajit is persuaded that
the estate does not belong to the crown and the Buddha rules that it should be
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The Saiva Age
the monasteries during his lifetime by creating religious endowments. We have
a striking example of this in the eleventh century. Rva Lo tsa ba, who had be-
come extremely wealthy by charging for instruction in the Tantras — he is said
to have established fixed rates for a wide range of texts — , sent 100 srangs of
gold to Vikramasila to fund the recitation in perpetuity of a copy of the Panca-
vimsatisahasrika Prajnaparamita written in gold, two golden copies of the Asta-
sahasrika Prajnaparamita, and 100 srangs of gold to fund the recitation in per-
petuity of eighty -four copies of the Prajnaparamitasamcayagatha by eighty-four
Panditas of the monastery. 216
How closely the Pala emperors and their bureaucracy were involved in the
supervision of their Buddhist foundations cannot be determined from the avail-
able evidence. But it is almost certain that a Superintendent would have been
appointed by the ruler to oversee their administration and that he would have
required a substantial staff to enable him to do so. The Ratnavali, a Mahayanist
work of uncertain authorship written before the sixth century 217 advises the un-
known king to whom it is addressed on the proper administration of his realm
distributed among the monks of his monastery: bhajayata yuyam bhiksava upa-
nandasya bhiksor mrtapariskaram (p. 119, 11. 13—14). The main concern here is to
ensure that the wealth of monks stays within the community, free of the state's
interferecee. For analysis of the treatment of these and related matters in the
Mulasarvastivada-vinaya see SCHOPEN 2004, pp. 3-6. The private property of a
deceased monk was to be divided, directly or after sale, among the members of his
community or, where this was not appropriate, as in the case of land, servants, and
grain-stores, taken over for the use of the whole community (Gilgit Manuscripts,
vol. 3, pt. 2, pp. 141, 1. 4-143, 1. 1). But when the estate contained precious metals,
worked or not, those were to be divided into three shares, one for each of the Three
Jewels (Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. 3,pt. 2, p. 143, 11.10-12: suvarnam ca hiranyam
ca yac canyac ca krtakrtam trayo bhagah kartavyah | eko buddhasya | eko dhar-
masya trtiyah sahghasya). That for the Buddha should be used for repairs to the
monastery's Buddha shrine (gandhakuti) and relic Stupas, that for the Dharma
should fund the copying or enthroning of the Buddha's teachings, and that for the
Sahgha should be divided among the monks (ibid., 11. 12-14). In the case of jewels
other than pearls half should go to the Dharma and half to the Sarigha (ibid. , 11. 1-
5). Manuscripts of Buddhist texts should be added to the monastery's library and
manuscripts of non-Buddhist texts should be sold and the proceeds shared (ibid. ,
11. 5-7).
216 Blue Annals, p. 377.
217 The work is attributed to the Nagarjuna of Mulamadhyamakakarika fame. I con-
sider this attribution to be doubtful in spite the fact that it is made by such au-
thors of the sixth century and later as Bhavaviveka, Candrakirti, Haribhadra, Ka-
malasila, and *Ajitamitra (Mi pham bshes gnyen), who wrote the only known com-
mentary on the text, which has come down to us in a Tibetan translation made by
the Bande Dpal brtsegs with the Indian Vidyakaraprabha in the early ninth cen-
tury. The Ratnavali itself contains no evidence of its authorship and Vetter (1992)
has cast doubt on the traditional attribution through an analysis of its metre and
word frequency.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
and begins by declaring: "Appoint for all religious foundations a Superinten-
dent of Religion {dharmadhikrtah) who is energetic, without avarice, learned,
and virtuous, who will not oppress them". 218 It goes on to advise him on the
qualities he should look for in those whom he appoints as ministers (sacivah),
military commanders (dandanayakah), and superintendents (adhikrtah), telling
the king: "Have them submit to you complete monthly accounts of revenues and
outgoings and, after hearing these, personally conduct all business pertaining to
religious foundations and the rest". 219 This, of course, is not evidence of what
was done in the Pala realm. But as I read the passage it is the qualities and
duties of these various officials that are the subject of injunction, not their exis-
tence; and there is certainly nothing exceptional in the office itself, since we have
evidence that it was normal in kingdoms throughout the Indie world. 220 Ab-
218 Ratnavali 4.22: sarvadharmddhikdresu dharmddhikrtam utthitam \ alubdham
panditam dharmyam kuru tesdm abddhakam. The term dharmddhikdrah, which
elsewhere is used to refer to the office of the Superintendent, is clearly used here in
the meaning 'religious foundation', as the Tibetan translation chos kyi gzhi agrees,
and as it occurrence earlier in the same passage (4.18) confirms: dharmddhikdrd ye
cdnye purvardjapravartitdh | devadronyddayas te 'pi pravartyantdm yathd sthitdh
'And you should ensure that temples and other religious foundations created by
former kings should continue as they are'. This sense of the word is also found
in Licchavi inscriptions; see LKA 71, 11. 12; and 81, 1. 11-12: bhavisyadbhir
api bhupatibhih purvardjakrtadharmddhikdrapdlanddrtair bhavitavyam 'Future
kings too must take care to maintain religious foundations created by kings of the
past'.
219 Ratnavali 4.26: pratimdsam ca tebhyas tvam sarvam dyavyayam srnu | srutvd
*dharmddhikdrddyam kdryam sarvam (Tib. chos gzhi sogs kyi don kun nyid)
svayam kuru.
220 In the Abhijndnasdkuntala of Kalidasa Dusyanta, wishing to conceal his identity
from Sakuntala tells us that he has been appointed by the king to the office of Su-
perintendent of Religion and accordingly has come to her hermitage in his official
capacity to satisfy himself that they are free of hindrances to the performance of
their rites; Act 1, after v. 22, p. 38: bhavati yah pauravena rdjnd dharmddhikdre
niyuktah so 'ham avighnakriyopalambhdya dharmdranyam dydtah. The fifth Da-
modarpur copper-plate inscription, of 533/4, recording a formal request for the pur-
chase of land in the Kotivarsa district to be given to a nearby temple, speaks of it
being presented with the full knowledge of the Office of Religion (dharmddhikdra-
buddhya) {EI 15:7, p. 143). A banker Ralhana has the title dharmakarmddhikdrl
'the superintendent of religious activities' in the Kharod inscription dated in 1181/2
of Ratnadeva III, the Kalacuri of Ratnapura (EI 21:26, 1.28: sresthind ralhane-
ndtra dharmakarmddhikdrind). The humourous play Agamadambara, composed
by the Kashmirian philosopher Jayantabhatta and set in the Kashmir of his own
time, during the reign of Sankaravarman (883-902), has a Saiva ascetic inform us
that a brahmin Samkarsana has been appointed by that king to the dharmaraksd-
dhikdrah, the 'Office of Superintendent of Religion' for the whole country (Act 3,
Prelude, p. 132: sakalde yyeva vasumdhalde dhammalaskddhidle niutte [*sakaldyd
eva vasumdhardyd dharmaraksddhikdre niyuktah]). The term dharmadhikrtah oc-
curs in a fifteenth-century inscription from Nilacala, the site of the famous temple
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The Saiva Age
sence of thorough external control of the great monasteries seems all the more
unlikely when one considers that apart from the fact that they were such large
and wealthy establishments it was not the case that by building, equipping, and
endowing a monastery a patron surrendered his ownership entirely The patron
continued to be the owner of the monastery and its contents (mahaviharasvami,
viharasvami) in some sense and the monks were obliged to employ all these for
the purposes for which they were designated, the return for the owner being the
constantly augmenting merit that was generated for him by their repeated use
(paribhoganvayam punyam). Only where there was no such use, as in the case of
a Caitya, did a donor gain merit once and for all by the simple act of surrendering
ownership (tyaganvyayam punyam). 221
Moreover, we know that monks who held senior teaching positions in the
great monasteries did so by royal appointment, 222 and that rituals for state pro-
of Kamakhya, near Gauhati in Assam, recording a grant of land by a king Madhava.
The inscription opens with the information that the grant has the approval of this
official: dharmadhikrtenanumatam (SlRCAR 1979, p. 16, 1. 1). Mpu Prapanca re-
veals in his Old Javanese poem Desawarnana that there were two Superintendents
of Religion in the Majapahit kingdom of east Java, one for the Buddhists (dharma-
dhyaksa kasogatan), and the other for the Saivas (dharmadhyaksa kashaiwan).
Inscriptions from that kingdom reveal that there was also a board of subordinate
religious officials known as the Assessors of Religion (dharmopapatti or dharmadhi-
karana); see Santiko 1995, p. 56; cf. here p. 119; for references see ZOETMULDER
1982, under dharmadhyaksa, dharmopapatti and dharmadhikarana.
221 On this crucial distinction between paribhoganvayam punyam and tyaganvayam
punyam see Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakosabhasya on 4.121a (caitye tyaganvayam
punyam 'In the case of a Caitya there is merit that accrues from surrender'): caitye
saragasyatmartham danam ity uktam | tatrasaty upabhoktari katham punyam bha-
vati | dvividham punyam tyaganvayam tyagad evayad utpady ate paribhoganvayam
ca deyadharmaparibhogad yad utpadyate | caitye tyaganvayam punyam (4.121a)
'It has been said that a gift to a Caitya made by one who is not free of attachment
is for his own benefit. Since there is no enjoyer of the gift in such cases how can
there be merit [generated by such a gift]? Merit is of two kinds: tyaganvayam,
which arises only from the surrender [of ownership of what is given], and parib-
hoganvayam, which arises from the enjoyment of a pious gift [by the recipients]'.
One should note that the restrictive particle eva is used here only after tyagad. Va-
subandhu does not state conversely in the case of paribhoganvayam punyam that
this kind of merit arises only (eva) from the use of the donation. I infer that merit
in such cases was understood to arise both from the act of surrendering possession
and from subsequent use. This is confirmed by Candrakirti, who in his Prasanna-
pada, commenting on paribhoganvayam in Madhyamakakarika 17.5a, speaks of
the goods used as 'surrendered' (parity aktasy a). See Abhidharmakosabhasya on
4.4ab addressing the conundrum of how the Buddha's doctrine of moral action as
intention (cetana) can be reconciled with this claim of the accretion of further merit
(punyavrddhih) whenever a recipient uses something donated whether or not the
donor is aware of it; and Sanderson 1995c, pp. 38-40.
222 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 179, 11. 13-14: rgyal pos spyan drangs te na la nda dang
| bi kra ma la shi la'i nub sgo bar bskos shin 'The king invited [Vaglsvarakirti]
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tection were performed on behalf of the monarch at Vikramasila. We have seen
above Taranatha's report of the fire-ritual performed for the benefit of the dy-
nasty by the Vajracaryas of that monastery; and two important texts on the rit-
ual of initiation written by two major Tantric authorities under the early Palas,
the Sarvavajrodaya of Anandagarbha and the Guhyasamajamandalavidhi of
Diparikarabhadra, the successor of Buddhajnana at Vikramasila, insert ancil-
lary rites specifically for the averting of danger from the monarch. 223 Moreover,
to Nalanda and made him the Guardian of the Western Gate of Vikramasila'; p.
182, 1. 10: bdus kyi ka chen dang po bram ze rin chen rdo rje ni 'The brahmin
Ratnavajra, the first [occupant of the the position of the] Great Central Pillar of
Vikramasila'; p. 182, 1. 19: rgyal pos bi kra ma shi la'i *pa (corr. : sa Ed.) tra
phul 'The king bestowed [on Ratnavajra] the charter of appointment [as the chief
monk] of Vikramasila' HBI, p. 297 and 301. We may presume that the same ap-
plied to those who held office as the Gate Guardians of the other three direc-
tions (Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 181, 11. 8-10): and to Jnanasrimitra, described
as the second to hold office at Vikramasila as the Great Central Pillar (p. 183, 1.
11). King Bheyapala (Abhayapala?), a king otherwise unknown, whom Taranatha
makes the predecessor of Neyapala (Nayapala [r. c. 1027-1043], the successor of
Mahipala I), is reported to have bestowed charters of appointment on only sev-
enty Panditas of Vikramasila (Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 184,11. 14: bi kra ma
shi lar ni | pa ndi ta bdun cu tsam gyi *pa tra (corr. : sa tra Ed.) las ma tshugs
te; HBI, p. 304) Taranatha tells us that for that reason he is not counted among
the Seven Palas (p. 184, 11. 14-15, HBI, p. 304), that is to say the seven remem-
bered for their exceptional patronage of the faith. These seven are not listed, but
Taranatha does say which of the Palas were excluded from the list. The seven
that remain are Gopala, Devapala, Dharmapala, Mahipala, Mahapala, Neyapala
(Nayapala), and Ramapala. Other, later appointments recorded by Taranatha
are those of Dipahkarasrijnana as Upadhyaya at Vikramasila under Bheyapala,
with responsibility also for Uddandapura (p. 304), the Pramanika Yamari under
Nayapala (p. 187, 1. 19: bi kra ma shi lar *pa tra (corr. : sa tra Ed.) cher thob
'He obtained the great charter of Vikramasila'; HBI, p. 308), and Abhayakaragupta
as Upadhyaya, first at Vajrasana and then at Vikramasila and Nalanda, under
Ramapala (p. 189, 1. 10-13; HBI, p. 313). I take the term patra here (=patram,
patrika) to mean an official document bestowing an office and hence by exten-
sion office or authority bestowed by this means; cf. patrika in Tantralokaviveka,
vol. 3, p. 191, 11. 3-6, the commentary of the Kashmirian Mahanayaprakasa
p. 115,8, and Vamakesvarimatavivarana, p. 55 (on the theft of such documents
by fraudulent Gurus); also the expressions tamrapatram and sasanapatram for
a royal charter. With the names of Indian Buddhist authors and translators
we commonly encounter the title Mahapandita (Mkhas pa chen po / Pan chen)
(also Mahapanditasthavira, Mahapanditacarya, and Mahapanditabhiksu). Among
Tantric scholars with this title are Atulyavajra, Advayavajra, Abhayakaragupta,
Anandagarbha, Kuladatta, Darpanacarya, Dipahkarasrijnana, Durjayacandra,
Naropa, Buddhaguhya, Bhavabhatta, Ratnaraksita, Ratnakarasanti, Ravisrijnana,
Vaglsvarakirti, Vibhuticandra, Sakyaraksita, and Sridhara. It is perhaps analo-
gous to the Chinese Buddhist title dashi (Jap. daishi) 'Great Master', which came
to be bestowed by the Emperor on distinguished monks from the reign of Yizong
(859-873) onwards; see Forte 1994, pp. 1023-1034.
223 Anandagarbha, Sarvavajrodaya f. 29rl-2 (a preliminary rite): *manusasthicurna-
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The Saiva Age
Taranatha relates several occasions on which Buddhist Tantric masters were be-
lieved to have used Tantric rituals to good effect against the enemies of their
patrons in times of danger. 224 In some sense, then, these were state monasteries,
not unlike the great imperial monasteries of Tang China and Japan, 225 rather
homenasrgvisasahitena (em. [Tib., cited in Ed. mi rus kyi bye ma khrag dang
dug dang bcas pa dang] : manusasthicurnaho + + + + visasahitena Cod., Ed.)
mandalavighnam nivaryatmasisyabhupalddisantikahomam kuryat 'After having
removed [all] impeding spirits from the Mandala by offering into the fire powder
of human bone mixed with blood and poison he should perform a fire-sacrifice
for the warding off of dangers from himself, the candidate(s) for initiation, and
the monarch or other [ruler]'; and Diparikarabhadra, Guhyasamajamandalavidhi
f. 16vl, vv. 373-374 (a concluding rite): saty eva sambhave tesam pratyekam
vamapanina \ savyahgusthakam agrhya santim kuryad vidhanatah || trisaptahutim
ekam va rajho va bhupater atha | dikpalasvatmasantau ca hutva yaceta daksinam
'With his left hand he should take hold of the right thumb [of the person who has
been initiated] and make offerings into the sacrificial fire in accordance with the
prescribed procedure, doing this for each [of the initiates in turn], if that is possible.
Having made twenty-one oblations or just one to ward off danger from [each of
these and, then from] the monarch or [lesser] ruler, also from [the Vajracaryas
who have officiated as] the Guardians of the Directions and himself, he should
request his fee'. The rite of offering at this point a santikahomah of twenty-one
oblations for each of the candidates while holding their right thumbs with the
left hand is derived from Mahavairocanabhisambodhitantra, but the extension
of that rite in order to protect the king, the Guardians of the Directions, and the
main officiant himself is an innovation not found there; f. 172v5-6 . . . 173r3-4:
slob ma sdig dang bral ba kun | de Itar legs par btsud nas ni | de dag zhi bar bya
ba'i phyir sbyin sreg cho ga bzhin du bya . . . de nas slob ma re re nas | mkhas pas
lag pa g.yon pa yis | g.yas pa'i mtho bong bzung nas su \ mnyam par bzhag pas
sbyin sreg bya \ yid ni mnyam par bzhag nas su \ sreg blugs re re las kyang ni |
gsang sngags cho ga bzhin zlos shing \ nyi shu rtsa gcig sbyin sreg bya | na mah
sa ma nta bu ddha nam \ om ma ha sha *nti (em. : nta Cod.) ga ta sha nti ka ra
pra sha ma dha rmma ni rja ta a bha ba sva bha ba dha rmma sa ma ta pra pte
sva ha \ sbyin sreg rjes la sngags pa yis | slob ma mams la yon bslang ba 'When
he has in this way introduced all the sin-free disciples [before the Mandala] he
should duly perform a fire-offering to ward of danger from them. . . . Then the
learned [officiant], should concentrate himself and make offerings into the fire,
after grasping the right thumb of each disciple with his left hand. With his mind
concentrated he should offer twenty-one oblations for each, reciting according to
the Mantra rite namah samantabuddhanam | om mahasantigata santikara
PRASAMADHARMANIRJATA ABHAVASVABHAVADHARMASAMATAPRAPTE SVAHA.
After the fire-offering the Mantrin should request his fee from the disciples'.
224 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 178, 11. 4-7; HBI, p. 294 (the Balyacarya of Vikramasila de-
stroys a Turuska army invading from Bengal); p. 186, 11. 8-11, HBI, p. 306 (Prajna-
raksita makes offerings to Cakrasamvara when Vikramasila monastery is attacked
by a Turuska army: the army is struck by lightning, which killed their leader and
many others, so that they were repelled); p. 197, 1-4, HBI, pp. 326-7 (Lllavajra,
Tantracarya of Vikramasila, defeats the Turuskas by drawing the Yamaricakra);
and p. 197, 1. 22-p. 198, 1. 9; HBI p. 328 (Kamalaraksita drives off a Turuska army
from Vikramasila by throwing enchanted water at them during a Tantric feast
[ganacakram]).
225 On the imperial Great Monasteries of China and Japan (Ch. ta si, Jpn. daiji [Skt.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
than autonomous, self-governing institutions.
The Palas' Engagement with Saivism
The Palas were certainly the most liberal patrons of Buddhist institutions
in early medieval India, and it was no doubt largely because of this that the
religion was able to develop and flourish so remarkably in their realm. However,
it should not be thought that the scale of these rulers' support implies that they
at least, unlike the other royal patrons of Buddhism that have been reviewed
here, must have turned their backs on Saivism, starving it of patronage that it
might otherwise have received. For there is much evidence to the contrary.
In the ninth century Devapala is praised in a charter of his son Mahen-
drapala for having built two temples of outstanding beauty during his rule,
one for the Buddha and the other for the consort of Siva; 226 and Mahen-
drapala is reported to have established a temple for the emaciated goddess
Carca (Carcika/Camunda). 227 An eleventh-century Prasasti from Bangarh,
ancient Kotivarsa in Varendri, also called Devikota and Sonitapura, informs
us that Nayapala had the Saiddhantika Sarvasiva as his royal preceptor
(gaudarajaguruh), and that when Sarvasiva retired he passed this office to
his brother Murtisiva. This implies that Nayapala received Saiva initiation,
since to initiate the king is fundamental to the Saiva Rajaguru's role. It also
tells us that at the site of this inscription Mahipala I, Nayapala's predecessor,
had bestowed a Kailasa-like monastery on Sarvasiva's predecessor Indrasiva.
Mahipala is described here as a 'knower of reality' (tattvavit), which suggests
in this Saiva context that he too had received Saiva initiation, which suggests
in turn that the gift of the monastery was his Guru's daksina. It is probable,
therefore, that Indrasiva too, like his successors Sarvasiva and Murtisiva,
mahaviharah]) see Forte and Durt 1984. For Japanese Tantric Buddhist rituals
of state protection (chingokokka) see May 1967.
226 gj 42 : 2, 11. 12-13: yo nirmame *sugatasadma grham ca (corr. : sugatasadmagrhan
ca Ed.) gaurya yat kautukam ca tilakam cajagattraye 'pi.
227 EI 39:7, the Siyan stone slab inscription of Nayapala, v. 40: mahe[ndra]pdlacarca-
yd mahendrasadrsodayah | yah sailim vadabhim saile sopdnena sahakarot 'who,
equal in greatness to Mahendra (Visnu), built for Mahendrapala's Carca a stone
Vadabhi temple on [her] hill and a flight of steps [leading to it]'. When D.C. Sir-
car published this inscription he judged that it is probable that the Mahendrapala
mentioned in this verse is the Gurjara-Pratihara king of that name (EI 39:7, p. 48),
who ruled c. 885-908. In the light of the discovery of Mahendrapala's Malda in-
scription (EI 42:2) we may now safely assume that he was the Pala of that name.
On this goddess see here p. 231. Carcika, Camunda, Carmamunda, and Karnamoti
are listed as synonymous deity-names in Amarakosa 1.1.46. The name Carcika ap-
pears in place of Camunda in the Picumata in treatments of the eight Mothers (the
seven ending with Carcika [Mahesvarl, Brahmam, Vaisnavi, Kaumarl, Vaivasvati,
Mahendri, Carcika], with Parama/Puram/Aghoresi making up the total).
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The Saiva Age
had held the office of royal preceptor. 228 I know of no direct evidence that
Mahipala's successor Vigrahapala III had a Saiddhantika Rajaguru, but it is
likely that he did, since in his Amgachi copper-plate inscription he is described
as 'devoted to Siva's worship', 229 and there is evidence which strongly suggests
that this tradition was still in place under his successor Ramapala. For in the
twelfth century the South-Indian Saiddhantika Trilocanasiva tells us that his
preceptorial line descends from a Dharmasambhu (Dharmasiva) who had held
office as the royal preceptor of "the king of Gauda", a standard expression for the
Pala rulers. 230 Since three preceptorial generations intervene in that account
between Dharmasambhu and Trilocanasiva, it is probable that this king was
Ramapala. 231
228 The Bangarh Prasasti of Murtisiva (Sircar 1983b), found at Sivavati (mod.
Sibbadi) in the vicinity of Kotivarsa, 11. 8-9: 9 srlman indrasivah sphutam ha-
riharaprayam sivendrakrtim bibhrad vamsavibhusanam samabhavac chisyo 'sya
punyatmanah | yasmai kancanapuhjamahjuracitaprasadamerusphuratkailasabha-
matham daddv iha mahlpalo nrpas tattvavit; 11. 11-12, reporting that Indrasiva's
successor Sarvasiva was the royal preceptor of Nayapala: rajho srlnayapalasya gu-
rus tattvavidam varah \ srlman sarvasivas tasya sisyo 'bhud bhusanam bhuvah;
and 11. 13-14, reporting that Sarvasiva resigned his office as the Gaudarajaguru in
favour of his brother Murtisiva: 14 yenavarjitagaudarajagurutalaksmlr nijabhra-
tari srlman milrtisive nivesya vipinavdsam svayam vanchata | kslrodarnavavama-
nthanotthitamilallaksmlm svasisye harav aropyaharato visam pasupater vrttantam
udghatitam.
229 EI 15:18, 11. 17-19 (v. 12): plta<h> sajjanalocanaih smararipoh pujanuraktah
sada samgrame caturo 'dhikas ca haritah kalah kule vidvisam \ caturvarnyasama-
srayah sitayasahpunjair jagad rahjayan srlmadvigrahapaladevanrpatir jajne tato
dhamabhrt 'From [Nayapala] was born the illustrious king Vigrahapaladeva, who
was drunk by the eyes of the virtuous, ever devoted to the worship of Siva, more
skilled in battle than Indra, the god of Death to the families of his foes, support of
the four caste-classes, white-washing the world with the multitudes of his stuccoed
temples'.
230 See, e.g., in a pedestal inscription of the reign of Palapala (r. c. 1165-1199): srlgau-
desvarapalapalapadanam (HUNTINGTON 1984, p. 239, no. 59) and the Sarnath in-
scription of Mahipala (HULTZSCH 1885), v. 2: gaudadhipo mahlpalah.
231 Colophonic verses at the end of Trilocanasiva's Somasambhupaddhativydkhyd
(IFP, MS Transcripts 457 [Tl] and 170 [T2]; edition in Brunner 1963-
1998, Pt. 4, pp. 422-427 [B]): 1 srlcedirajabhuvi *saivajanakarakhyasrlgolakl-
yamathabhavasivas ca yo 'sau (saivajanakarakhya T2B:saivajanakarakhyas T2
• srlgolaklyamatha conj. : srlkolaklvimala T1T2 : srlgolaklvimala B • bhavasivas
ca yo 'sau conj. :bhavasivasayosau T1T2B) | tadvamsajah sivamatagamalaksa-
vetta srldharmasambhur iti gaudapatindranathah \\ 2 tasmad asav anala-
sankaradesiko 'bhud divyagamambunidhir *lhitakalpavrksah (Tl : itikalpavr-
ksah B) | svargaukasam api padam vacasa labhante *yasyaiva (conj. B -.yasyaika
T1T2) janmamaranaika*bhayan (T2 :bhayamTl) nirastah \\ 3 *srlgolaklyasam-
tanavyomavyapl (golaklya T2B :kolaklya Tl) tatah sivah \ srisomasambhur ity
aslt kalau lokahitaya vai \\ 4 jnanasaktivapus tasmaj jnanasambhuh sada-
sivah | yenedam dyotitam sarvam saivajhanamalarcisa || 5 somarkavamsanrpa-
mauli*vilolitahghrir (T2B -.vilolitahghri Tl) vidvajjanananasarojadivakaro mam
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
There is other evidence of these kings' engagement with Saivism. The poet
Samdhyakaranandin describes king Madanapala, Ramapala's second son, as a
devotee of Siva; 232 and a pedestal inscription of 1026 recording renovations of
Buddhist structures at Sarnath by two Pala princes Sthirapala and Vasantapala,
also tells us that Mahipala I had engaged them to have hundreds of temples of
Siva, Citraghanta, and other deities built in Benares and that he did so after
offering obeisance at the feet of the Guru Vamarasi of that city, who, as we can
infer from his name in -rasi, was a Saiva ascetic of the Atimarga. 233
| dlndndhasurikrpandtithi*pdrijdtah (corr. -.pdrijdta T2B warajata Tl) srljhdna-
sambhur anisam malinam pundtu '[1] In the land of the king of Cedi [livedl
Dharmasambhu, a spiritual descendant in the lineage of the famous Bhavasiva
[=Sadbhavasiva/Prabhavasiva, founder] of the venerable monastery at Golaki. He
mastered one hundred thousand [verses] of the scriptures of the religion of Siva
and became the Lord [Guru] of the King of Gauda. [2] His successor was the fa-
mous teacher Analasiva, an ocean of the celestial scriptures, a tree of paradise
that granted every wish, one through whose instruction men attained the world
of the gods, free of the unique terror of birth and death. [3] His successor was
Somasambhu, a Siva who for the good of mankind [was the sun whose light] filled
the sky of the venerable lineage of Golaki. [4] His successor in [this] Kali age was
Jnanasambhu, the very embodiment of [Siva's] power of knowledge, [a] Sadasiva
who illuminated this universe with the pure radiance of his understanding of Siva's
teachings'. [5] His feet were caressed by the crowns of kings of the lineages of both
the moon and the sun. He was a sun to the lotuses that are the faces of the learned.
He was the tree of paradise to the needy, to the blind, to scholars, to the wretched,
and to uninvited guests. May Jnanasambhu ever [continue to] cleanse me [as his
disciple], impure as I am'. The king of Cedi referred to at the beginning of this
passage is the Kalacuri and his land is Dahaladesa, the region of central India ap-
proximately comprising within modern Madhya Pradesh the Jabalpur District, and
parts of the Satna, Panna, and Rewa Districts.
232 Rdmacarita 4.35b: sivapranayi.
233 rp^g gfjmath inscription of Mahipala (HULTZSCH 1885): om namo buddhdya \ *va-
rdnasisarasydm (corr. -.varanasisarasyam Ep.) guravasrlvdmardsipdddbjam | drd-
dhya namitabhupatisiroruhaih saival*ddhisam (?) || isdnacitraghantddikirtiratna-
satdni yau | gaudddhipo mahlpdlah kdsydm srimdn akdrafyat] || saphalikrtapdndi-
tyau bodhdv avinivartinau \ tau dharmmardjikdm sdhgam dharmmacakram pu-
nar nnavam \\ krtavantau ca navindm astamahdsthdnasailagandhakutim | etdm
sristhirapdlo vasantapdlo 'nujah srimdn 'Obeisance to the Buddha. Sthirapala
and his younger brother Vasantapala, whom the Glorious Mahipala, the ruler of
Gauda, caused to erect hundreds of fine temples for Siva, Citraghanta, and [other]
gods in Kasi after worshipping the venerable Gurava Vamarasi's feet, the lotuses
that beautify the lake that is Varanasi, with [strands of] duckweed *clinging to
them (?) in the form of the hair of the kings that bow down to them, have made
the Dharmarajika, a new Dharmacakra together with its ancillaries, and a new
Buddha-shrine from stones of the eight sacred places, having made their learn-
ing bear fruit, refusing to turn back in their quest for enlightenment'. The read-
ing saivalddhlsam is surely a mistake, for if it were sound it could only yield
the absurd meaning 'overlord of duckweed'. The meaning required by the con-
text would be secured by saivaldsahgam. This has the advantage that it echoes
a verse in Kalidasa's Kumdrasambhava (5.9), which is likely to have been in the
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The Saiva Age
Similarly, the Bhagalpur copper-plate inscription of Narayanapala (r. c. 860-
917) records his establishing a Siva and granting a village to it and the associ-
ation of Pasupatacaryas (pasupatacaryaparisat) attached to the foundation; and
though it gives him the epithet paramasaugatah it reports that he had been re-
sponsible for the building of a vast number of other temples for this deity 234
We have even more striking evidence of this kind in the case of Nayapala.
His Siyan stone slab inscription {EI 39:7) devotes most of its sixty-five verses
(21-63) to detailing an extensive program of royal temple building and image
installation undertaken throughout the Pala realm. Damage to the inscription
has removed the name of the king who was responsible for this program, but it
is extremely unlikely that it was other than Nayapala, since the account follows
immediately on that of his martial exploits, following those of his predecessors.
These pious activities comprise the construction of a temple topped by golden
lions and a finial, evidently therefore a Vadabhi temple for a goddess, 235 with
a temple of Siva and an attached two-storied monastery (matho dvibhumih) for
the accommodation of ascetics to its south (v. 24), a temple with a [golden] finial,
memory of the author of the inscription, to the effect that during the austerities
that Parvati undertook to win the hand of Siva her face was just as charming with
her ascetic's braids as it had been with her elegantly adorned coiffure; for, says
Kalidasa: "The lotus is not beautiful only when when lines of bees hover about it
but even when [strands of] duckweed cling to it" (na satpadasrenibhir eva pahkajam
sasaivalasangam api prakdsate). However, this solution has the weakness that
it is not open to any obvious explanation of how the error arose. Perhaps the per-
son who wrote the letters on the stone before they were engraved was thinking
of Vamarasi's official status in Benares. If that, as is very likely, was as the ab-
bot of a Saiva monastery, then the error -adhlsam might be the result of the in-
trusion into his mind of an expression such as saivddhlsam, saivamathddhisam,
or saivalay ■adhlsam. For the expression mathadhisah (=mathddhipatih) see, e.g.,
Rdjatarahgini 7.298ab: bhattdrakamathadhisah sddhur vyomasivo jati; and the
anonymous Kumdrapdladevacarita v. 51a: tarn nimantrya mathadhisarn (called
mathddhipatih in v. 49b). But this would be more convincing if the reading
corrupted were closer to saivalddhlsam in written appearance or pronunciation.
Citraghanta has her temple in Benares near that of Siva Citraguptesvara as one of
the Nine Durgas. The sense intended may be that he had [new] shrines built for all
nine of these goddesses.
234 HULTZSCH 1886, 11.28-29: paramasaugato mahdrdjddhirdjasrwigrahapdla-
devapdddnudhydtah paramesvarah paramabhattdrako mahdrdjddhirdjah
srimanndrdyanapdladevah ...; 11.38—41: matam astu bhavatdm \ kalasapote
mahdrdjadhirdjasrindrdyanapdladevena svayamkdritasahasrdyatanasya tatra
pratisthdpitasya bhagavatah sivabhattdrakasya pdsupata-dcdryaparisadas ca |
yathdrham pujdbalicarusattranavakarmddyartham sayandsanagldnapratyaya-
bhaisajyapariskdrddyartham | anyesdm api svdbhimatdndm | svaparikalpita-
vibhdgena anavadyabhogdrtham ca \ yathoparilikhitamuktikdgrdmah .... I agree
with HULTZSCH that svayamkdritasahasrdyatanasya here means '[Siva] for whom
he [Narayanapala] himself has built a thousand temples'.
-Ill-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
presumably for Siva, since it was equipped with eleven [subsidiary] shrines in
which the eleven Rudras were installed (v. 25), a Vadabhi temple for the Mother
Goddess 236 and a series of temples for the Nine Durgas, 237 a lofty temple for
Siva Hetukesvara at Devikota, 238 a temple of Siva Ksemesvara with a golden
235 Verse 23ab: [sujdhdsubhram kdncanasimhakumbhasirasam That a Vadabhi
temple housing an image of a goddess should be distinguished from others by being
surmounted by [twol lions and a finial, and that Vadabhi temples are principally for
the housing of goddesses, is prescribed in the Saiva Pratisthatantras, Tantras, that
is, which specialize in temple construction and installation. See Mayasamgraha,
f. 28r-v (5.86c-89): vasvamse sodasatydgdt suryasamvardhitdyatih || 87 catur-
danat purah siddhasukdghro vadabhih smrtah \ prdsddo vyaktalihgesu netaresu-
dito budhaih || 88 vistdrdd dvigunotsedhahphamsddikrtasamvrtih \parsve simha-
dvayopeto madhye kalasabhusitah || 89 padaikasdrdhabhittir vd sapdda-
dvigunonnatih \\ visesato 'mbikddlndm samnidhisthdnam iritam; ibid., f. 29v
(vv. 119-121): vadabhyam ambikadevyah kesarl garudo hareh \ sriyo dvipo
vrsah sambhoh savituh kamalo 'thavd \\ tad anyesdm ca devdndm svdyudham
vd hitam param | svacihnaparamam yad vd nijakalpoktam eva vd || yad utpatti-
sthitidhvamsakdranam visvatomukham | bhdti sarvdtmano murdhni sd cudd ga-
ditd budhaih; f. 28v (5.89cd), referring to the Vadabhi type of temple: visesato
'mbikddlndm samnidhisthdnam Iritam. The sections of this and other unpublished
Saiva works (Brhatkdlottara, Pihgaldmata, Devydmata, and Mohacudottara) that
deal with the building and design of the various kinds of temple are being edited,
translated, and analyzed in a doctoral thesis being prepared by my pupil Elizabeth
Harris.
236 y erge 26: mdtuh krte 'traiva *suvarnakumbhabhrdjisnumurdhdm (em. : suvarna-
kumbhabhardjisnumurdhdm Ed.) valabhim sildbhih \ [20 syllables obliterated!
devT.
237 Verse 27: saildni mandirdny atra mandardnkdni ydni ca\ + + + + + + + +
krtd yd nava candikdh 'and here stone temples of the Mandara kind . . . the
Nine Candikas'. The Nine Candikas are surely the eighteen-armed form of
MahisasuramardinI Durga known as Ugracanda and her eight sixteen-armed
ancillaries Rudracanda, Pracanda, Candogra, Candanayika, Canda, Candavati,
Candarupa, and Aticandika. They are nine to match the nine days of the autum-
nal Navaratra festival. For these goddesses, also called the Nine Durgas, see Ag-
nipurdna 50.7-11 and 185.3-10; and Vidyapati, Durgdbhaktitarahgini, p. 198. That
Nayapala had [nine] temples built for these goddesses is in keeping with the pre-
ferred option of Agnipurdna 185. 3cd: durga tu navagehasthd ekdgdrasthitdthavd
'Durga may be in nine temples or one'. For a Paddhati for the worship of Ugracanda
and her ancillaries see Ugracanddprakarana.
238 Verse 28ab: devikote hetukesasya sambhor yah prdsddam sailam uccair akdrsit.
For the Hetukesvara of Devikota/Kotivarsa (modern Bangarh) see Sander-
son 2001, fn. 4, p. 7; also Picumata f. 8r3-4 (3.119c-123), which requires
the installation of Hetukesvara as Bhairava in the northeastern segment of
the initiation Mandala: isdne tu disdbhdge kotivarsam. prakalpayet || 120
vatam tatra samdlikhya tatra sulodakam likhet \ diksu caiva vidiksu ca
sulaprotd likhet tathd || 121 sula tasydgrato likhya kundasyaiva mahdtape
| pattisam purvato nyasya vatasyddhas tato priye || 122 astapatram likhet
padmam tathaiveha na samsayah \ hetukesvaram dlikhya saddsivatanus tathd
|| 123 karnikdydm mahddevi mahdbhairavarupinam | rudrdstakasamopetam
purvavad devi cdlikhet; and Nisisamcdra f. 17v (4.20—21): kotlvarse karnamoti
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The Saiva Age
finial and a water reservoir, 239 a temple of Siva Varaksesvara together with a
monastery and reservoir, 240 a temple of Visnu (v. 33), a temple of Ghantisa and
of Bhairava surrounded by the sixty-four Mothers 'in his own city', 241 a temple of
Siva Vatesvara at Campa, 242 and a Vadabhi temple on a hill-top with a flight of
mahdbalakulodbhavd | sulahastd sthitd devi sarvayogesvaresvarl || tasmin ksetre
sthitd devi vatavrksasamdsritd \ ksetrapdlo mahdkdfyo] hetuko ndma ndmatah.
The origin myth of the cult of Hetukesvara, Bahumamsa (=Karnamoti/Camu-
nda/Carcika), and the other Mothers (Matrs) at Kotivarsa is narrated in chapter
171 of the early Skandapurdna-Ambikdkhanda. Siva promises the Mothers there
that he will compose Tantras of the Mothers (mdtrtantrdni) to guide their worship.
The names of these reveal them to be the Yamalatantras; see Sanderson 2001,
pp. 6-7, fn. 4.
239 Verse 30: ksemesvarasydyatanam ksemahkaro grdvamayam smardreh | cakdra
yo murdhni diptdyatasdtakumbhakumbham vyadhdt tatra mahdsaras ca. In
a passage describing Varendri (3.1-27) in the Rdmacarita, completed in the
time of Madanapala (r. c. 1143-1161) but relating events that occurred dur-
ing the reign of Ramapala (r. c. 1072-1126), Samdhyakaranandin devotes
six verses to the deities of the region (3.2-7). There Ksemesvara appears
with Hetvisvara or with Hetvisvara and Candesvara as one of only two or
three deities individualized by a personal name (3.2-5: kurvadbhih sam devena
srihetvisv arena devena \ candesvardbhidhdnena kila ksemesvarena ca sandthaih
|| . . . sambhdvitdkalusabhdvdm), the others mentioned being generic: the twelve
Adityas, the eleven Rudras, Skanda, Vinayaka, the Vasus, the Visvadevas, and the
Lokapalas. Hetvisvara here is surely identical with the Hetukesvara of Kotivarsa
mentioned above. As a synonymous form it was probably substituted for metrical
convenience. It is not clear from the Sanskrit whether Samdhyakaranandin in-
tended Candesvara to be understood as an alias of Ksemesvara or as the name of
third local Siva. I am not aware at present of any external evidence that removes
this doubt.
240 Verse 32: . . . matham ca sarasim ca | dhdma varaksesvara iti sambhor api sailam
uttdlam.
241 Verse 35: ghantisam yah svanagare nyadhdt ksemdya dehindm | catuhsastyd
ca mdtrndm paritam tatra bhairavam. This Ghantisa is perhaps a double of
the Mahaghantesvara/Mahaghanta identified by the Picumata (3.77c-83) as the
Bhairava of Viraja, modern Jajpur in the Cuttack District of Orissa, formerly
the capital of the Bhauma-Kara kings: dgneye (em. : dgneyam Cod.) virajayam
tu trikutam tatra cdlikhet | 78 ndndvrksasamdkirnam ulukais copasobhitam
| nandin ca chagalam caiva kumbhakarnam mahdbalam || 79 hetukam tatra
devesam smasdnena *samam nyaset (conj : samabhyaset Cod.) | tatropari likhec
chaktim karanjam ca mahddrumam || 80 tasyddhastdl likhet padmam astapatram
sakarnikam | karnikdydm likhed devam mahaghantam tu bhairavam
|| 81 katidese tathd caiva ghantdsaptavibhusitam \ rudrdstakasamopetam
bhairavdkdrarupibhih || 82 rudrdndm bdhyato devi yoginyah sat samdlikhet |
yamaghantd kardld ca mahdjihvd khardnand || 83 kardli danturd caiva ndmais
caitdh prakirtitdh | rudracakram ca samvestya saddiksu ca kramdt sthitdh; and
3.136cd (f. 8v2-3): dgneye mahaghantesvaram likhet; 30.25cd: dgneyapahkaje
caiva mahaghantesvaram nyaset. Ghantisa- is evidently Ghantesa- modified by
Middle-Indie Sandhi (-aid + i- > -'!-).
242 Verse 38: vatesvarasya vikatas campdydm dlayo 'smabhih \yena vyadhdyi navamah
kuldcala ivocchritah. Campa was the capital of Ahga in the eastern part of the
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
steps for the emaciated goddess Carca (Carcika) previously established by king
Mahendrapala, 243 the re-excavation of the step-well (vapi) of the sage Matahga
at Dharmaranya, the building of a lofty temple of Siva Matangesvara at that
site (v. 43), 244 the building of a temple of Laksmi (v. 44), the erecting of a golden
Trisula at Sagara (v. 45), 245 the building of a temple of the Sun-god (v. 46), the
provision of a golden cover for [the Liriga of] Siva Vaidyanatha, 246 the installa-
tion of a golden finial on the temple of Siva Attahasa (v. 50), 247 the making of
a silver image of Sadasiva, golden images of Candika and Ganesa (v. 53) with
golden pedestals, a Moon-god, a Sun-god of silver, a golden lotus engraved with
images of the Nine Planets (vv 54-55) — all these are ancillary deities of Saiva
worship — , and a bejewelled golden Siva (v. 56), the building of a monastery and
the installation in it of an image of Visnu in his [Pancaratrika] Vaikuntha form
(v. 61), and the building of a high Vadabhi temple for the goddess Pirigalarya. 248
A few other temples and one monastery are mentioned in the inscription (vv 21-
22, 31, 36-37, 39, 41-42, 47, 52, and 59-60), but their affiliation is not stated or
has been lost through damage to the stone. 249
It is striking that most of these constructions and images are Saiva or Sakta
Saiva and that not one is Buddhist. It is unlikely, however, that Nayapala had
rejected the Buddhist leanings so marked in this dynasty. For in addition to the
evidence of his being called paramasaugatah there is the fact that Taranatha
modern state of Bihar.
243 Verse 40: mahendrapdlacarcdyd mahendrasadrsodayah | yah saillm vadabhlm
saile sopdnena sahdkarot. Carca/Carcika is the fearsome emaciated goddess com-
monly known as Camunda or Karnamoti; see here p. 231.
244 Dharmaranya is at Gaya in southern Bihar. Its Matariga hermitage, its step-well of
Matariga, and its temple of Matangesvara are mentioned in Agnipurdna 115.34-36.
245 This is probably Gahgasagara/Gangasagarasamgama, where the Ganges flows into
the Bay of Bengal, listed in Saiva sources as one of the Saiva sacred power sites,
e.g., in the list of the siddhiksetrdni given in the Nisvdsatattvasamhitd, f. 42rl— 3
(Nisvdsaguhyasutra 1.29-33b).
246 y erge 4g. kholam akdri rukmaracitam srivaidyandthasya tat. Temples of Siva
Vaidyanatha are found in various parts of the subcontinent. However, SlRCAR is
no doubt correct in his annotation of this inscription (EI 39, p. 41) that this is the
Vaidyanatha of Deoghar (24°29' N, 86°42' E ) in Jharkhand, this being revered as
one of Siva's twelve Jyotirlingas.
247 Perhaps at Attahasa, now Labpur (23°50' N, 87°49' E) in the Bhirbhum Dis-
trict of Bengal. The name of the Siva at this Saiva and Sakta sacred site
is Mahanada (e.g. Matangapdramesvara, Vidydpdda 20.53ab: mahdnddasya
ndthasya cdttahdsakhyam eva hi \ vimalam vimalasyoktam sthdnam rudrasya
sobhanam); but Attahasa being nearly a synonym as well as the name of the site
may have been an alias.
248 Verse 63cd: iyam api valabhl grdvabhir uttuhgd pihgaldrydydh .
249 In addition v. 34 records the founding of a hospital (drogyasdld), and v. 57 gifts to
brahmins.
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The Saiva Age
reports that Nayapala had a Buddhist preceptor in the person of Mahavajrasana
Punyakaragupta. 250
Buddhist Kings of Eastern India and their Commitment to Brahmanism
Nor is it the case that royal devotion to the Buddha in eastern India dur-
ing this period weakened in this region the traditional commitment of Indian
rulers to the imposition and preservation of the caste-based brahmanical social
order in which Saivism was embedded. For in the Neulpur grant of the Bhauma-
Kara king Subhakara I his grandfather Ksemarikara is described both as a Bud-
dhist and as having ensured that the members of the caste-classes and disci-
plines observed their prescribed roles; 251 in his Terundia copper-plate inscription
Subhakara II, the grandson of Subhakara I, is given the epithet paramasaugatah
yet is also commended for having 'propagated the system of uncommingled caste-
classes and disciplines proper to the [perfect] Krta Age following the unexcelled
[brahmanical] scriptures'; 252 the Pala Dharmapala is described in a grant of his
son Devapala both as a paramasaugatah and as taking measures to ensure that
castes that erred were made to adhere to their respective duties, thereby dis-
charging his father's debt to his deceased ancestors; 253 and Vigrahapala III is
250 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 185, 11. 7-9: rgyal po 'dis rdo rje gdan pa chen por grags
pa la mchod de | de dge bsnyen gyi dus kyi mtshan pu nya shri \ rob tu byung ba'i
mtshan pu nya a ka ragu pta'o 'This king [Neyapala] venerated [the teacher] called
Mahavajrasana. During his time as a lay Buddhist, his name was Punyasri. His
ordination name was Punyakaragupta'; HBI, p. 305. In Taranatha's text the name
of the king is given as Neyapala. But there can be no doubt that it is Nayapala
that is meant. For there is no other Pala whose name 'Neyapala' approximates, and
Taranatha's chronology of Neyapala fits this king's reign. He relates that his reign
began shortly before Dlparikarasrljfiana (Atlsa) left for Tibet, which is not far out,
since Nayapala came to the throne in approximately 1027 and Dlpankarasrljiiana
set out for Tibet in 1038.
251 EI 15:1, 1.2: svadharmaropitavarnasramah paramopasako . . . srlksemahkara-
devah.
252 EI 28:36, 11. 8-10: paramasaugatafh] . . . niratisayasastranusarapravartitakrtayu-
gocitasahkirnavarnasramavyavasthah.
253 The Mungir copper-plate grant of Devapala, KlELHORN 1892, p. 255, 1.28:
paramasaugataparamesvaraparamabhattarakamahdrajadhirdjasridharma-
paladevapadanudhyatah paramasaugatah paramesvara<h> paramabhattarako
maharajadhiraja<h> srlman devapaladeva<h>; and 11.8-9 (v. 5): sastrarthabhaja
calato 'nusasya varnan pratisthapayata svadharme \ sridharmapalena sutena so
'bhut svargasthitanam anrnah pitrnam '[Gopala] became free of his debt to his
ancestors in heaven through his son Dharmapala, who, adhering to the teachings
of the [brahmanical] Sastras, after chastising those [members of] caste-classes
that stray makes them adhere to their prescribed duties'. Cf. Visnudharmottara
2.65.55: varnasramavyavasiha tu tatha karya visesatah | svadharmapracyutan
raja svadharme viniyojayet 'The king must above all establish the castes-classes
and disciplines with the proper distinctions between each. He should force those
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
described in his Amgachi copper-plate as the support of the four caste-classes. 254
Moreover, most of the surviving inscriptions of the Palas, Candras, and Bhauma-
Karas record grants which they made in favour of Brahmins. The Rampal copper-
plate grant of the Candra Sricandra strikingly exhibits the extent to which this
double allegiance was unproblematic for such Buddhist donors. Following a prac-
tice widely attested in non -Buddhist donative inscriptions the gift of land is said
to have been made over to its brahmin recipient after the pouring of water and
the performance of a fire-sacrifice, in this case a kotihomah. 255 This is simply
adapted to the donor's faith by dedicating the offerings to the Buddha rather
than to Siva or Visnu. 256
It seems, then, that royal patronage, reflecting no doubt the balance of alle-
giance in the wider population, ensured that Buddhism, for all the liberal sup-
port it received from the Palas, was in no position to oust or diminish Saivism,
even in this region. The monasteries themselves reflect this symbiosis. The
excavations at Somapura revealed an abundance of non-Buddhist deities, par-
ticularly Siva, among the stone relief sculptures around the base of the central
temple and the very numerous terracotta plaques that decorated its walls. 257
who fall from their prescribed duties to carry them out'; and the Bhagalpur plate of
Narayanapala, HULTZSCH 1886, v. 2cd: maryadaparipalanaikaniratah sauryalayo
'srndd abhud dugdhambhodhivilasahasamahima sridharmapalo nrpah 'After
him came King Dharmapala. He was solely dedicated to the maintenance of the
boundaries [between the caste-classes and disciplines]; he was the very abode of
heroism [in warl; and the glory [of his fame] shone dazzlingly white like the ocean
of milk '.
254 EI 15:18, v. 13c: caturvarnyasamasrayah.
2SB On the brahmanical kotihomah see Sanderson 2005a, pp. 382-383.
256 EI 12:18, 11.28-29: vidhivad udakapurvakam krtva kotihomam bhagavate
bhagavantam buddhabhattarakam uddisya mdtdpitror atmanas ca punyayasobhi-
vrddhaye . . . 'According to rule, after pouring water [upon the hand of the re-
cipient] and after performing a kotihomah for the Lord and dedicating it to the
Lord Buddha, to add to the merit and fame of my parents and myself . . . '. Cf.,
e.g., EI 21:37 (the Saktipur copper-plate of Laksmanasena, r. 1179-1206), lines
42-44: vidhivad udakapurvakam bhagavantam srlnarayanabhattarakam uddisya
mdtdpitror atmanas ca punyayasobhivrddhaye; EI 21:28 (the Palanpur plates of
Caulukya Bhimadeva of Gujarat), A.D. 1063, 11. 5—6: mahesvaram abhyarcya mdtd-
pitror atmanas ca punyayasobhivrddhaye .... We find a similar case in the Amgachi
grant of Vigrahapala III (EI 15:18, 11. 35-40), but with the omission of the fire-
sacrifice: mdtdpitror atmanas ca punyayasobhivrddhaye bhagavantam buddha-
bhattarakam uddisya ....
257 Dikshit 1938, pp. 39, 41-42, 49, 50, 52, 53, 54, and 58, commenting (p. 58) that
brahmanical and Buddhist gods are equally and promiscuously represented on the
terracotta plaques, and that among the brahmanical deities Siva is the most fre-
quently represented both on those and in the stone relief sculptures. For the forms
of Siva found here see his Plates XXXa-d, XXXIa-e, XXXIX/ 1 (Linga), XLI d-2, and
XLIV a and e, LVIe (Mukhalinga), and LVIIIa (Umamahesvara).
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The Saiva Age
Excavations of the Vikramasila monastery also uncovered a mix of Buddhist
and predominantly Saiva non-Buddhist images, the latter Siva, Umamahesvara,
Siva and Parvati, Bhairava, Mahisasuramardini, Parvati, Kaumari, Camunda,
Ganesa, Kartikeya, the Navagraha, Vrsabha, Visnu, and Surya. 258
Joint Patronage of Buddhism and Saivism in the Kingdoms of the Khmers,
Chams, and Javanese
Much the same phenomenon can be seen in Southeast Asia among the
Khmers, the Chams, and the Javanese. Among the first the dominant religion
was Saivism until the rise of the Theravada that accompanied the decline of
Angkor, and Tantric Buddhism, even when it enjoyed short periods of promi-
nence through exceptionally determined royal patronage, found itself bound, as
I have shown elsewhere, to accommodate its rival. 259
In the kingdoms of the Chams, speakers of an Austronesian language who
inhabitated the plains along the coast of the South China Sea in what is now the
central part of Vietnam, most of the inscriptions that have survived, in Sanskrit
and Old Cham, ranging in time from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries, record
acts of royal piety to Siva or to goddesses identified with his consort. There
are also a few from the ninth and tenth centuries that record the installation
of Tantric Mahayanist Lokesvaras, the construction of associated Viharas, and
land-grants to these. But as in eastern India we find in these that single donors
supported both religions. Indeed the situation is more striking here because in
all but one case each of these inscriptions records a person's practising both kinds
of patronage, Buddhist and Saiva. 260 Thus in the Bakul stele of 829 a Buddhist
monk Sthavira Buddhanirvana records that his father Samanta has donated two
Viharas to the Buddha and two temples to Siva. 261 The Dong Duong stele of 875
records that King Jayendavarman alias Laksmlndra enshrined a Laksmindra-
lokesvara and an associated Vihara, yet the bulk of this long inscription is de-
voted to the praise of the Siva Bhadresvara, who, we are told, is the source of this
dynasty's power and prosperity 262 The Nhan-bieu stele records that in 908 Pov
258 JAR 1974-75, p. 7; 1975-76, p. 7; 1976-77, p. 11; 1977-78, p. 15; 1978-79, p. 43;
and 1979-80, p. 13.
259 On the co-existence of Saivism and Tantric Buddhism in the Khmer kingdom of
Angkor see Sanderson 2005a, pp. pp. 421-435.
260 The exception is the An-thai stele of 902 (Huber 1911, pp. 277-282), which records
that the Buddhist monk Sthavira Nagapuspa, a close associate of Bhadravarman
II, installed a Pramuditalokesvara, and also that this king made a land-grant to the
associated monastery (Pramuditalokesvaravihara).
261 ISCC, pp. 237-241.
262 p INOT 1904a, pp. 84-99.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
klun Sudanda[va]sa and his son Pov klun Dharmapatha installed a Siva Deva-
lirigesvara and in 911, the year of the inscription, built a Vihara for a Vrddha-
lokesvara, which is to say, a Vihara associated with a deity Vrddhalokesvara,
which was installed there around this time since it is evident from its name that
it was established with the name of their grandmother, princess Lyari Vrddha-
kula, the grandmother of the senior wife of Jayasimhavarman I. 263 A stele at
Mi-son of 1092 records that King Jayendravarman (alias Paramabuddhaloka),
described as versed both in the Mahayana and in the brahmanical Dharma-
sastras, established two Buddhist deities, a Buddhalokesvara and a Jayendra-
lokesvara, but also two goddesses, a Jayendresvari, and an Indragaurisvari, both
probably Saiva, and between 1085 and the year of the inscription gave to Siva
Isanabhadresvara a Liriga-sheath of gold and silver alloy adorned with jewels,
an inner shrine of sandalwood, silver, gold, and jewels, various items of gold and
silver, elephants, and male and female slaves, and beautified his temple with
silver and gilded its pinnacles. 264
This co-ordination of the two faiths is also evident in eastern Java. The 'Cal-
cutta' stone inscription of Airlangga (c. 1010-1050), founder of the kingdom of
Kahuripan, reports in its Old Javanese section that he was consecrated as the
king in 1019/20 by Buddhist (Saugata), Saiva (Mahesvara), and Mahabrahmana
dignitaries; 265 and much evidence of the simultaneous royal support of both
Saivism and Buddhism during the Singhasari and Majapahit periods (1222-
1292, 1293-c. 1500) is present in the Old Javanese poem Nagarakrtagama, also
called Desawarnana, completed in 1365 by Mpu Prapanca during the reign of
Hayam Wuruk of Majapahit, consecrated as Rajasanagara (1350-1389). We
learn from this work that both Saiva and Buddhist priests participated in pe-
riodic ceremonies for the benefit of the realm within the great courtyard in-
side the royal gate of the palace compound, 266 that the administrative heads
263 Huber 1911, pp. 299-311.
264 FlN0T 1904b, pp. 970-975
265
de Casparis 1992, pp. 482-483; Kern 1885 and 1913, p. 104, 11.14-15: matah
yan rake halu sri lokesvaradharmmawamsa airlahgdnantawikramottuhgadewa-
sangjnd kdstwan sri mahdrdja, de mpuhku sogata mahesvara mahabrahmana iri-
kang sdkakdla 941 'Wherefore he was confirmed with blessings by the high digni-
taries of the Buddhists, Saivas, and Mahabrahmanas under the name of Rake Halu
Lokesvara Dharmavamsa Airlangga Anantavikramotturigadeva in Saka 941'.
266 Nagarakrtagama 8.3-4; PlGEAUD 1960-1963, vol. 4, p. 13. This event is referred
to by PlGEAUD in his translation (1960-63, vol. 3, p. 10) as "purification (cere-
monies)". The term used here is the Sanskrit prdyascittam (8.3d: prdyascitta ri
kdlaning *srawana [conj. PlGEAUD : grahana Cod.] phalguna makaphala hay-
waning sabhuwana). The function of the ceremony, therefore, was expiatory: to
cancel the effects of any errors, omissions, or excesses in observances and con-
duct during the period since the last performance. Kern, accepting the reading
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The Saiva Age
(dharmadhyaksa) of these two communities had official quarters in the east and
west to the south of the royal compound, 267 and that his sovereign was dedicated
grahana phalguna, took the occasion to be an eclipse during the month Phalguna.
As PlGEAUD saw, this is implausible. He therefore proposed that grahana is an
error for srawana 'the month Sravana', making this ceremony bi-annual and not-
ing that the resulting timing coincides with that of the two major festivals of the
Majapahit court (1960-63, vol. 2, pp. 21-22). A trace of this co-functionality has
survived into modern times on the island of Bali, where there are both Saiva and
Buddhist priests (padanda), with the latter now forming a small minority, about 1
in 10 and less than twenty in all (HOOYKAAS 1973, pp. 5 and 8), which sometimes
had a role in state-sponsored rituals (Stuart-Fox 2002, pp. 324 and 326)).
267 Nagarakrtagama 12.5; PlGEAUD 1960-1963, vol. 4, p. 25. For a map showing
the location of these quarters within the palace compound (kraton) see Hall
1996, p. 99. PlGEAUD claims (ibid.) that both are regularly mentioned in the
preambles of the royal charters of Majapahit. This is so in the Decree Jaya
Song of c. 1350, the Ferry Charter of 1358, and the undated Charter of Batur
(PlGEAUD 1960-1963, vol. 1, pp. 104-114 [edition]; vol. 3, pp. 151-164 [transla-
tion]). They are named in the first after the ministers: the Dharmadhyaksa
of the Saivas (dharmmadhyaksa ring kasewan), Rajaparakrama, alias Dharma-
raja, and the Dharmadhyaksa of the Buddhists (dharmmadhyaksa ring kaso-
gatan) Aryadhiraja Kanakamuni, described as a master of the Buddha's teach-
ings and grammar (boddhasastrawayakaranaparisamapta). In the second the
Dharmadhyaksa of the Buddhists has become Nadendra, described in the same
way (boddhatarkkawyakaranasastraparisamapta) and we learn that the second
name Dharmaraja of the Dharmadhyaksa of the Saivas is his nama puspapata,
that is to say, the name he acquired during his initiation through the casting of a
flower (puspapatah) in accordance with standard Saiva procedure (e.g. Svacchanda-
tantra 4.62cd: puspapatavasan nama karayet sadhakasya tu 'He should name the
Sadhaka in accordance with the casting of the flower'; Brhatkalottara f. 91v4 :
puspapatanusarena samjha Hatpurvato [em. : tatpatrato Cod.] hita 'The [ele-
ment of the] name before that [such as -siva which indicates the initiate's caste]
should be [given] in accordance with the casting of the flower'). In the third the
Dharmadhyaksa of the Buddhists is Aryadhiraja [Kanakamuni], as in the first, de-
scribed as a master of grammar and the [Buddhist] Tantras (wyakaranatantrapari-
samapta), and that of the Saivas is Arya Harsaraja, described as a master of logic
and grammar (nyayawyakaranasastraparisamapta). They are mentioned along
with a number of other learned men, six in the first, seven in the second, and five in
the third, referred to as "teachers of Law and settlers of law suits" (dharmmapra-
wakta wyawaharawicchedaka) in the first and second and as "settlers of law suits
as valid or not" (nyayanyayawyawaharawicchedaka) in the third. They are no doubt
the officials referred to elsewhere as the Dharmopapattis (see here p. 105). In the
first they are (1) Siwanatha, (2) Marmanatha, (3) Smaranatha, (4) Jayasmara, (5)
Agreswara, and (6) Mumndra. In the second they are (1) Siwanatha, (2) Agreswara,
(3) Jayasmara, (4) Widyanatha, (5) Siwadhipa, (6) Srighana, and (7) Samatajnana.
In the third they are (1) Marmanatha, (2) Smaranatha, (3) Mahanatha, (4) a second
Smaranatha, and (5) Agreswara. Mumndra in the first and Srighana and Samata-
jnana in the second were Buddhists, a fact already evident from their names but
confirmed by the charters' reports of their fields of expert knowledge. We learn
from the first charter that Siwanatha, Smaranatha, and Agresvara were adher-
ents of the Bhairava sect (bhairawapaksa), that is to say, Sakta Saivas, and that
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
to the support of both religions (81.1-2). Moreover, in the opening verse of his
poem he pays homage to him as Siva-Buddha in human form. 268
Particularly striking are passages that report the deity-images or temples in
which the souls of deceased kings had been installed. Ranggah Rajasa (r. 1222-
1227), was enshrined in two temples, one Saiva and and the other Buddhist, in a
single temple complex at Kangenengan; 269 and both Saiva and Buddhist priests
were seated beside king Rajasanagara when he sat in audience after worship-
ping here. 270 Anusapati (r. 1227-1248) was installed in a Siva image at Kidal; 271
Visnuvardhana (r. 1248-1268) in a Siva image at Waleri and a Buddha image
Marmanatha and Jayasmara were adherents of the Saura sect (sorapaksa), that is
to say, Surya worshippers (see here p. 58). The second and third charters do not
specify the sects of the judges listed, so that the affiliations of Widyanatha, Siwa-
dhipa, one of the two Smaranathas, and Mahanatha are unknown. It is striking
that these judicial boards included no Vaisnavas. The absence of a representative
of the Rsi sect, often grouped with those of the Saivas and Buddhists as one of the
three principal denominations in Java (e.g. Arjunawijaya 28.1c: rsi saiwa sogata;
Kuhjarakarna 22.3c: sang boddhasaiwdrsipaksa), is not surprising. For its fol-
lowers were forest-dwelling hermits. The Kuhjarakarna associates them with the
worship of the [Pasupata] pahcakusika; see 23. Id: Iwi glar sogata pahcabuddha rsi
pahcakusika wiku saiwapahcaka; and Teeuw and Robson 1981, p. 26. See also
Sanderson 2005a, pp. 374-376. The creation of the post of a Dharmadhyaksa of
the Buddhists and the inclusion of Buddhists on the judicial board were perhaps re-
cent developments. For the Sarwadharma charter issued in 1269 during the reign
of Krtanagara (Pigeaud 1960-1963, vol. 1, pp. 99-103 [edition]; vol. 3, pp. 143-
150) mentions only a Dharmadhyaksa of the Saivas (Acarya Siwanatha Tanutama:
mpungku dharmmadhyaksa ri kasewan dang dcdryya siwanatha mapahji tanu-
tama) together with a board of five other Acaryas, Dharmadewa, Smaradahana,
Smaradewa, another Siwanatha, and Agraja, not one of whom has an obviously
Buddhist name (plate 2, recto, 11. 4-7).
268 Nagarakrtdgama l.lbc: siwa budda sira sakalaniskalatmaka | sang srlparwwata-
naiha 'The Lord of the Mountain, protector of the unprotected, the holy Siva-
Buddha, who is both manifest [in physical forml and transcendent'. The Lord of
the Mountain (sriparwwatandtha) addressed in this verse has been understood, im-
plausibly, as Siva. I am entirely persuaded by the evidence presented by Supomo
(1972; 1977, pp. 69-82) that it is the king that is intended in this and the opening
verse of Mpu Tantular's Arjunawijaya, where the Lord of the Mountain, in this case
called Parwwatarajadewa, is identified as the physical manifestation of the ultimate
reality that is the Buddha (1.1b: sang saksat paramdrthabuddha).
269 Nagarakrtdgama 40. 5d: sang dindrmmadwaya ri kagnangan ssewaboddeng usdna.
Pigeaud translates dindrmmadwaya as 'a double dharma (religious domain)'
(1960-1963, vol. 3, p. 46) and ROBSON (1995, p. 5) as 'a double temple'. I do not
see that the expression, which is equivalent to Skt. dharmadvayam, conveys any-
thing more than the fact that there were two temples. Cf. Santoso 1975, p. 54.
270 Nagarakrtdgama 36.2b: para wiku sai sogata dryya ndligih iniring nirekhi tan
adoh.
211 Nagarakrtdgama 41. Id: pradipa *siwabimba (Kern : simbha Pigeaud) sobhita
rikang sudharmma ri kidal.
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The Saiva Age
at Jajaghu; 272 Krtanagara, r. 1268-1292, who is depicted as a devout initiated
Tantric Buddhist and described after his death as "liberated in the world of Siva-
Buddha", 273 and was installed in a Siva-Buddha in "his own place" and, with
his queen, Vajradevi, in a Buddhist image combining Vairocana and Locana at
Sagala. 274 Krtarajasa Jayavardhana (r. 1293-1309) was installed in a Buddha
in the palace and a Siva at Simping, 275 and Jayanagara (r. 1309-1326), who is
described as having returned to the world of Visnu, 276 in Visnus in the royal com-
pound, Shila Petak, and Bubat, and in a Buddha in the form of Amoghasiddhi
in Sukhalila. 277 We also learn that there was a temple founded by Krtanagara
at Jajawa, located at the foot of the sacred mountain Kukuwus, which was Saiva
but had a Buddhist pinnacle and contained a Siva with an image of Aksobhya
above its crown, and that both Buddhists and Saivas worshipped in it. 278 The in-
272 Ndgarakrtdgama 41.4b: dinarmma ta sire waleri siwawimbha len sugatawimbha
mungwing jajaghu.
273 Ndgarakrtdgama 43.5c: sang mokteng siwabuddaloka . His commitment to Bud-
dhism is indicated in 42.3c (samaya len brata mapageh apdksa sogata) and
43.2a (bhakti ri pada sri sakyasimhdsthiti). As for his involvement in Tantric
Buddhism we learn that he received Buddha consecration (jindbhisekah) and
was then given the name Jnanavajresvara (43.2bc: lumrd ndma jindbhisekanira
sang sri jndnabajreswara), that he devoted himself to Tantric worship fol-
lowing the otherwise unknown Subhutitantra as his principal guide (43.3b:
mukyang tantra subhuti rakwa tinngbt hempen), and that he celebrated the
esoteric Tantric ritual known as ganacakram (43.3d), an indication that his
Tantrism was that of the Guhyasamdja or one of the Yogimtantras. His
initiation-name appears in the forms Jnanasivavajra and Vajrajnanasiva in the
Sanskrit inscription (Kern 1910) on the lotus-cushion of an image of him-
self in the form of the Mantranaya deity Mahaksobhya installed at Simpang
in Surabaya in 1289 (vv. 12—13: srijndnasivavajrdkhyas cittaratnavibhusanah |
jndnarasmivisuddhdhgas sambodhijhdnapdragah || subhaktyd tarn pratisthdpya
svayam purvam pratisthitam \ smasdne vurarendmni mahdksobhydnurupatah; 19d:
vajrajnanasiva + +). All three forms of the name have the appearance of a Saiva-
Buddhist hybrid.
274 Ndgarakrtdgama 43. 5d: rihke sthdnanirdn dinarmma siwabudddrcca halp no-
ttama; 43.6: hyang werocana locana Iwiriran ekdrcca prakdseng prajd.
275 Ndgarakrtdgama 47.3b-d: drdk pinratista jinawimbha sireng puri jro | antahpura
ywa panlah rikanang sudarmma saiwdpratista sira teko muwah ri simping.
276 Ndgarakrtdgama 48.3a: sang nrpati mantuk ing haripada.
277 Ndgarakrtdgama 48.3bcd: sighra sirdn dinarmma ri dalm purdrccanira
wisnuwimbha parama | len ri sild ptak mwang i bubat pada pratima wisnumurtty
anupama ring sukhalila tang sugatawimbha sobhitan amoghasiddhi sakala. His
installation in Visnus is without parallel among the Singhasari-Majapahit kings;
see Pigeaud 1960-1963, vol. 4, p. 141. However, the kings of Kadiri, the principal
court of East Java through the tweflth century to c. 1222, were devotees of this god.
Most were described as his embodiments (de Casparis and Mabbett 1992, p. 327)
and his incarnations are central to the literary epics (kakawin) of the Kadiri court
(Hall 2005, pp. 2 and 8).
278 Ndgarakrtdgama 56.1b— 2c: kirtti sri krtanagara prabhu yuyut nareswara sira |
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
timate co-existence of the two traditions is also apparent in the intertextuality of
religious texts in Java, as has been demonstrated for the Saiva Jnanasiddhanta
and the Tantric Buddhist Sang hyang Kamahdydnikan and Kalpabuddha. 279 It
is also seen in the great frequency with which the Mahayana-Buddhist concept of
emptiness (sunyatd) is incorporated in Javanese Saiva sources through the inclu-
sion of the terms sunya and sunyatd among those used to characterize the high-
est reality 280 in the readiness of the redactors of Saiva liturgies to supplement
sets of Saiva elements with Buddhist elements when they needed to make up a
total for the sake of the numerical correspondence, 281 and in the fact that the
Kunjarakarna of the Buddhist Mpu Dusun the supreme Buddhist deity Vairo-
tekwan rakwa sirangadistita sarlra tan hana waneh etunyang dwaya saiwa bodda
sang amuja nguni satatd || chinang candi ri sor kasaiwan apucak kaboddan i
ruhur mwang rijro siwawimbha sobhita halpniraparimita | aksobhyapratime ruhur
mmakuta tan hanolyantika 'It was a temple (kirtih) of Lord Krtanagara, the king's
great-grandfather. He himself established it. Hence both Saivas and Buddhists
have from the beginning always conducted the worship. The sign is that the temple
is Saiva in its lower section and Buddhist above. Inside is a beautiful Siva image
and above an image of Aksobhya as (on?) its crown. Of there is no doubt'. On the
significance of the Saiva-Buddhist fusion seen in Krtanagara in both inscriptions
and literary works see Hunter 2007.
279 See Soebadio 1971, pp. 12-19 and 55-57 for evidence of this intertextuality; also
for a general treatment of the co-existence of the two traditions in Java ZOETMUL-
der in Stohr and Zoetmulder 1968, pp. 262-314.
280 See, e.g., Jnanasiddhanta 3.2-3: nadas ca liyate sunye sunyam eva tu jayate
| sunydc chunyataram vapi atyantasunyalaksanam || sthulam sakalatattvam ca
suksmam sakalaniskalam | param niskalasunyam ca urdhvatyurdhatisunyakam;
8.3: sthulam sabdamayam proktam suksmam cittamayam bhavet \ param
cittavirahitam cittam tyaktvatisunyata; Ganapatitattva 2: svaso nihsvasah
samyoga atmatrayam iti smrtam | trisivam tripurusatvam aikatmya eva sunyatd;
23: hrdayastham sadasivam hrdayante guhyalayam I sunyatisunyam cinty-
ate param kaivalyam ucyate; Mahajnana 62: suryakotisahasramsu hrdayam
vimalam subham \ hrdayante padam sunyam param kaivalyam ucyate; 83: ratris
ca prakrtir jheya ravis ca purusas tathd \ dyutis ca va mahadevah sunyam
ca paramah sivah. I consider it highly probable that these Sanskrit works
are Javanese creations. Some of the verses can be found in Indian Saiva
sources: Wrhaspatitattwa 53 and Ganapatitattwa 3 < Rauravasutrasamgraha 7.5;
Jnanasiddhanta 19.5 and and Ganapatitattwa 43 < Kirana 1.23; Wrhaspatitattwa
7-10 < Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha 4.3-6. But these are surprisingly few, and
the works contain several doctrinal elements that are alien to known Indian tra-
ditions. Moreover, the deviations from strict Sanskrit usage found in them seem
to me not to be characteristic of the registers of the language seen in Indian Saiva
scriptural texts. The same is true of the frequent deviations from the correct form
of the Anustubh in the second and fourth Padas: e.g. Ganapatitattwa Id, 16d, 48d,
49b, 49d, 54b, 54d, 55b, 59b, 59d; Mahajnana lid, 37b, 38d, 42b, 61b, 73b, 74b,
78b, 78d, 80d; Wrhaspatitattwa 3b, 6b, 6d, 12b, 20d, 23b, 24b, 25b, 63b, 72d. This is
extremely rare in Indian Saiva texts.
281 See the example of this cited in Sanderson 2005a, p. 377.
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The Saiva Age
cana is made to equate the divine pentads of the Saiva and [Pasupata] Rsi sects
with the five Tathagatas, teaching this in the context of an assertion that he is
the ultimate reality that assumes the form both of the Buddha and of Siva, 282
and that it is because the followers of the three sects fail to understand this un-
differentiated ground that they dispute with each other for the pre-eminence of
their respective Gods. 283 The same idea is seen in the works of the Buddhist Mpu
Tantular. In his Arjunawijaya he has the priest of a Buddhist temple-complex
(boddhadharma) explain to Arjuna that its central diety Vairocana is one with
Sadasiva, that its four ancillary deities, the directional Tathagatas Aksobhya,
Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi, are one with Rudra, Brahma,
Mahadeva, and Visnu respectively, 284 that there is no distinction between the
Buddha and Siva, 285 and that therefore it is the king's duty to support all three
sects, the Buddhists, the Saivas, and the Rsis. 286 Later, in his Sutasoma, Mpu
Tantular states that the Buddha and Siva are "different but one" (bhinneka tu-
nggal ika), the famous formula that has been adopted as its official national
motto by the modern state of Indonesia, as two manifestations of the ultimate
reality of the former. 287
282 Kunjarakarna 23. Id: livir glar sogata pancabuddha rsi pancakusika wiku saiwa
pancaka 'As the Buddhists have the five Buddhas, the Rsis have the pentad of
Kusika and the Saivas a pentad of their own'; 23.4bcd: ngwang wairocana buddha-
murti siwamiirti pinakaguru ning jagat kabeh \ ndham donkw ingaran bhatara
guru kaprakasita teka ring sardt kabeh | anghing bydpaka ring samastabhuwandku
juga warawisesadevatd 'I, Vairocana, am embodied both as the Buddha and as Siva,
and am accepted as Guru by all. Therefore it is I that am Bhatara Guru, famed
among all men, and it is I, as the highest deity, that pervade all the worlds.'
283 Kunjarakarna 22.3.
284 Arjunawijaya 26.4-27.1
285 Arjunawijaya 27.2abc: ndah kantenanya haji tan hana bheda sang hyang | hyang
buddha rakwa kalawan siwa rajadewa | kalih sameka sira sang pinakestidharma.
286 Arjunawijaya 30.1-2.
287 Sutasoma 139.5: hyang buddha tan pahi lawan siwarajadewa | rwanekadhatu
winuwus warabuddhawiswa | bhinneki rakwa ring apa n kena parwanosen
mangka ng jinatwa kalawan siwatattwa tunggal \ bhinneka tunggal ika tan hana
dharma mangrwa. This has been translated by Supomo (1977, p. 7) as follows:
"The god Buddha is not different from Siwa, the lord of the gods. The excellent
Buddha, the all-pervading, is said to be two different dhdtu. Yet although these two
dhatu are different, how is it possible to differentiate between them at a glance? In
the same manner, the reality that is Jina and the reality that is Siva are one; they
are different yet they are one, for there is no duality in the dharma". Comment-
ing on "the two different dhatu" mentioned in this verse (fn. 9) Supomo take them
to be the two Mandalas, the Garbhadhatu and the Vajradhatu of the Mahavairo-
canabhisambodhi and Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha respectively. This reading
is an error in my view. It does not accord with context, which requires that the
two be the realities of the Buddha (jinatwa) and Siva (siwatattwa) respectively. As
I understand it, the passage is saying that the Lord Buddha is both the Buddha
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Development of Tantric Buddhism Through the Adoption and
Adaptation of Saiva and Sakta Saiva Models
The Parallel Repertoire of Rituals
Now, this co-existence of Buddhism and Saivism under royal patronage was
surely facilitated by the fact that the form of Buddhism adopted and developed
was one that had equipped itself not only with a pantheon of ordered sets of
deities that permitted such subsumptive equations but also with a repertoire
of Tantric ceremonies that parallelled that of the Saivas and indeed had mod-
elled itself upon it, offering initiation by introduction before a Mandala in which
the central deity of the cult and its retinue of divine emanations have been in-
stalled, and a system of regular worship animated by the principle of identifi-
cation with the deity of initiation (devatahamkarah, devatagarvah) through the
use of Mantras, Mudras, visualization, and fire-sacrifice (homah); and this was
presented not only as a new and more powerful means of attaining Buddha-hood
but also, as in the Saiva case, as enabling the production of supernatural ef-
fects (siddhih) such as the averting of danger (santih), the harming of enemies
(abhicarah), and the control of the rain (varsapanam and ativrstidharanam),
through symbolically appropriate inflections of the constituents of these proce-
dures. The latter is particularly important from the point of view of Buddhism's
relations with its royal patrons, since such rituals enabled it to match the Saivas
by promising kings more tangible benefits than the mere accumulation of merit
through the support of the Buddha, his teaching, and the Sahgha. We have seen
an example of such ritual for the protection of the state in Taranatha's report
of the programme of Tantric fire-sacrifices performed at Vikramasila under the
direction of Buddhajnana during the reign of Dharmapala (r. c. 775-812) to en-
sure the longevity of the Pala dynasty; 288 we have another example in the case of
Klrtipandita, a Mahayana-Buddhist scholar and Tantric expert who according to
the Vat Sithor stele inscription became the Guru of the Khmer king Jayavarman
V (r. 968-1001) and was engaged by him to perform frequent fire-sacrifices in
the palace for the protection of the kingdom; 289 and the Javanese Prapanca tells
us that the purpose of king Krtanagara's adherence to Tantric Buddhism was
and Siva, whereas Supomo's reading makes Mpu Tantular espouse a doctrine of
absolute equality between the two religions within a reality beyond both. This is
intrinsically implausible in a Buddhist work. My reading makes his view exactly
that expressed by Mpu Dusun in 23.4bcd of the Kunjarakarna cited and translated
above: '"I, Vairocana, am embodied both as the Buddha and as Siva".
288 See here p.93.
289 K. Ill, Ccedes 1937-1966, vol. 6, pp. 195-211, v. 36. See Sanderson 2005a,
pp. 427-428.
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The Saiva Age
to increase his people's prosperity and the stability of his realm, and that its
reward was the undiminished and undivided sovereignty (ekachattra) of his de-
scendants. 290
The adoption of the Saiva practice of Mandala initiation created a further
line of access to patronage and was propagated vigorously, as it was by the
Saivas, as a means of the recruiting of social elites both in the subcontinent and
beyond. 291 Among the Buddhist Tantras at least two major texts teach rituals of
initiation, or consecration (abhisekah) as it is called in these sources, in which
it is kings in particular and royalty in general that are envisaged as the pri-
mary initiands. These are the Manjusriyamulakalpa and the Sarvadurgatipari-
sodhanatantra. 292 In the former this is so for the principal Kalpa of the text. In
the latter it is characteristic of initiation into the secondary Mandalas of the four
Great Kings and the ten Guardians of the Directions taught in the Uttarakalpa.
The sections dealing with these Mandalas specify the king as the principal con-
secrand, teach little or no required subsequent practice, and promise benefits
that apply principally to him, namely the protection of himself and his kingdom
and the destruction of the kingdoms of his enemies. The monarch is not men-
tioned in the treatments of initiation given in the Mahdvairocandbhisambodhi
and Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha, the two great Tantras that were translated
into Chinese in the early eighth century to form the basis of the Way of Mantras
there and in the Japanese Shingon and Tendai sects. But the ninth-century In-
dian authority Anandagarbha brings this aspect of the religion to the fore in his
Sarvavajrodaya, an influential manual that sets out detailed practical guidance
for the performance of the initiation ritual taught in the second of those texts but
draws heavily on the more detailed treatment in the first. For when he teaches
the preparation of the Mandala he prescribes a range of sizes beginning with that
appropriate for the initiation of the monarch. In his case each of the sides should
measure one hundred or fifty cubits (about 40 and 20 metres), in the case of a
feudatory (sdmantah) or major feudatory (mahdsdmantah) fifty or twenty-five,
in the case of a wealthy merchant (sresthi) or international trader (sdrthavdhah)
twenty-five or half of that, and in the case of an ordinary practitioner (sddhakah)
290 Nagarakrtdgama 42.3d: tumlrwa sang atitardja ring usdna magehakna wrddining
jagat; 43.3c: pujd yoga samddi pinrihiran amrih sthityaning rat kabeh; 43.4cd:
darmmestdpageh ing jinabrata mahotsdheng prayogakriya nahan hetuni tusni tus-
nira padaikaccatra dewaprabhu.
291 On the adoption by the Buddhists of the practice of royal initiation and its propaga-
tion in India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia see Sanderson
forthcoming a.
292 Manjusriyamulakalpa, p. 32, 11. 21, 23, and 28-30; Sarvadurgatiparisodhana-
tantra, sections 47b, 48a, and 49a.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
twelve or six (about 5 or 2.5 metres). 293
The Mantranaya also followed the example of the Saivas by devising Tantric
ceremonies for patrons in the public domain: for the consecration (pratisthd) of
temple images (pratimd), paintings of deities on cloth (patah), manuscripts of
sacred texts (pustakam), monasteries (viharah), shrines (gandhakutl), Caityas,
reservoirs ipuskarinyadi), gardens and the like (drdmddi). It also adapted the
Saiva procedures for funerary initiation to produce a Tantric Buddhist funeral
293 Sarvavajrodaya , f. 29r5-29vl: evam krtvd purvasevdm mandalam dlikhet. . . . rdjho
hastasatam pahcdsaddhastam vd sdmantamahdsdmantdndm pahcdsat paiica-
vimsatihastam vd sresthinah sdrthavdhasya vd pancavimsatim tadardham vd
sddhakdndm dvddasahastam saddhastam vd.
294 The details of this wide repertoire of the rituals that a Tantric Buddhist offi-
ciant (Vajracarya) was called on to perform are set out in a number of man-
uals that are closely comparable to the Paddhatis of the Saivas, notably the
Kriydsamgrahapanjikd of Kuladatta (Tanemura 2004b), the Vajrdvali of the
great Abhayakaragupta of Vikramasila (1064-1125 according to the chronologi-
cal tables of Sum pa mkhan po Yes shes dpal 'byor [1704-1788]; works dated
in the twenty-fifth, thirtieth, and thirty-seventh years of the reign of Ramapala
[c. 1072-1126]; Vajrdvali written before the first of these; see BtJHNEMANN and
TACHIKAWA 1991, pp. xiv-xvi), which adds procedures for the consecration of reser-
voirs, gardens, and the like (A, f. 2rl in the list of topics: pratimddipratisthd
| puskarinyddipratisthd | drdmddipratisthd), and the Acdryakriydsamuccaya of
Mahamandalacarya Jagaddarpana, which incorporates much of the Vajrdvali but
adds some new material, notably a final section on the funeral ritual for a de-
ceased Vajracarya (nirvrtavajrdcdrydntyestilaksanavidhih; B, ff. 240v7— 244v4),
which is an unacknowledged incorporation of the whole of the Mrtasugatiniyojana
of Pandita Sunyasamadhivajra (less its two colophonic verses). One other text giv-
ing a Tantric funeral procedure survives in Sanskrit, the Antasthitikarmoddesa,
at the end (ff. 15r8-15vll) of the Guhyasamdja -based Mandalopdyikd of
Mandalacarya Padmasrimitra of the Khasarpana monastery (f. 15vl0-ll: samdptd
ca mandalopdyikd | krtir iyam khasarpaniyamandaldcdryapadmasrimitrasya). On
these texts and the incorporation of the Mrtasugatiniyojana by Jagaddarpana see
Tanemura 2004a and 2007. On the Saiva prototype of funerary initiation see
Sanderson 1995a, pp. 31-33 and, for its adaptation, the Mrtoddhdradiksd, in
which a simulacrum is substituted for the body of the deceased, 2005b, pp. 264-267.
A fourteenth-century Paddhati for this Mrtoddhdradiksd survives in ff. 88vl-91rl
of the Gurupustikd of the Kashmirian Rajanaka Sitikantha. In an earlier publi-
cation (Sanderson 2007a, p. 395, fn. 549) I proposed that this work, then known
to me only indirectly from the Rdjdnakavamsaprasamsd of his patrilineal descen-
dant Rajanaka Ananda, who reports that it was composed at the request of [king]
Samgramasimha, might be preserved in a Sarada manuscript listed with this ti-
tle as belonging to the Sayaji Rao Gaekwad Central Library of the Banaras Hindu
University (MS CN. 4115). I can now report that this is indeed a manuscript of
that work and, as far as I am aware, its codex unicus. The name of the author is
confirmed on f. lvll-12: karmdnupurvismrtaye kesdmcid upayoginim | sitikanthas
samasyaindm vidhatte gurupustikdm; and the claim that he wrote at the re-
quest of Samgramasimha is confirmed on f. 13vl5-14rl: asmdkam kulasisyena
srisangrdmamahibhujd | abhyarthitdndm diksdrtham ayam paddhatidohadah. I
am very grateful in this matter to my former pupil Christopher Wallis, who after
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The Saiva Age
rite (antyestih) 294 for initiates, 295 in which, as in the Saiva case (antyestidiksa),
the officiant draws the consciousness (jnanam) of the deceased back into the
corpse from the other world, takes it again through the initiatory process of con-
secration and the rest (abhisekadi) before a Mandala, 296 and then sends it out
through the top of the head to ascend to liberation or a pure Buddha-field such
as Sukhavati. 297
reading my remark that I had not yet seen the manuscript very kindly acquired and
sent me scans of it.
295 According to Padmasrimitra the ritual is to be done for Acaryas and others who have
practised the meditation-rite of Vajrasattva or some other Tantric deity; f. 15r8,
v. 1: mrtdcdryddisattvd ye vajrasattvddiyoginah | vaks<y>e cdntasthite<h> krtyam
tesdm mdrganidarsandt . It may be done for a man or a woman; f. 15rl0— 11, v.
9ab: purusatanu<m> nirupydtha striyo vd samyag eva hi. Sunyasamadhivajra does
not specifiy those for whom it is intended. But Jagaddarpana adds a preamble to
Sunyasamadhivajra's text in which he restricts it to Vajracaryas; f. 240v7: adhund
parinirvrtavajr deary asarlrasydntestividhir ucyate.
296 Mandalopdyika , f. 15rl4, vv. 21c-22b: tato vijnanam dnlya mantramudrd-
nuyogatah || ahkusyddyaih pravesydtha dadydt sekddikam punah 'Then having
drawn down the consciousness [of the deceasedl by means of the Mantras and
Mudras, and having caused it to enter [the corpse] by means of the Mudras begin-
ning with the Hook, he should again give it the consecrations and the rest'; Mrta-
sugatiniyojana, f. 2r3-4: tato nayet suraktavarnam (conj. [Tib. mdog dmar gsal
ba] : suraktamsvadhdm) paralokasamsthitam jnanam dharmamukhdkrti yad vd
nivdtaniskampadipanibham \ dnitam taj jnanam mrtasya hrdaye pravesayet sirasd
'Then he should draw down the consciousness [of the deceased] that is in the world
beyond, [visualizing it as] bright red in colour or with the shape of the letter A (the
dharmamukham), resembling the unflickering flame of a lamp in a windless place.
When that consciouness is nigh he should cause it to enter the heart of the deceased
through [the top of] his head'. According to the Mandalopdyika, the Acarya should
trace and worship the Mandala, offer a Bali, and then place the corpse at its east
gate with its head to the south; f. 15rl2-13, vv. 12-13b: same visuddhabhubhdge
gomayenopalepite \ mandalam catusram vai kdrayet tatra samkiret || suklam pitam
rajo vdpi tatra padma*daldstakam (conj. : daldbhakam Cod.); f. 15rl3, vv. 18c— 19:
uttardbhimukho mantri sampujya mandalam balim || dattvdrghddikam caiva sam-
sddhya mandalam krti | sthdpayen mandaladvdri prdcydm tu daksindmukham .
297 In the Mandalopdyika 's prescription the Acarya visualizes that the purified con-
sciousness of the deceased is drawn out of the corpse by a multitude of rejoic-
ing deities filling the sky and placed by them in a world such as Sukhavati in-
habited by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; f. 15v2-3: 28 sambuddhabodhisattvddi-
virinwlravrndakaih | siddhagandharvabhujagaih surair vidyddharair api || 29
purnam nabhastalam viksya *nipatatpuspavrstikam (nipatat em. : nipatatah
Cod.) | tad divyadundubhidhvdnamuraja*mardaladhvani (mardala conj. : mu-
rdata Cod.) || 30 ucchatavenuvinddimadhurasvdrabhusanam \ taddnandasuvistdrdt
kurvadbhir nrtyam ujjvalam \\ 31 tair dkrsya ca vijnanam sukhdvatyddikdhvaye
| sthdpitam lokadhdtau hi buddhabuddhdtmajdsraye. The procedure of the
Mrtasugatiniyojana differs here; f. 3rl-3: tad anu *kusdgre (em. [Tib. ku sha'i
rise mo la] : kusdgram Cod.) *mantrl (em. [Tib. sngags pas] : mantrai Cod.)
vibhdvya tiksnaika*sucikam vajram (corr. : sucikavajram Cod.) | niksipya va-
jrarandhre dhydydt tad dahanasamkdsam || tad anu samdhitacitta<s> taddhrdi
vinyastavisphuraj jnanam \ samcodayej *jvaladbhir vajrdgrair mdrutoddhutaih
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Mahdvairocanabhisambodhi, the Manjusriyamulakalpa, and Buddhaguhya
That this transformation of the Mahayana had been achieved by absorbing
and adapting non-Buddhist practices was evident from the beginning. For the
Mahdvairocanabhisambodhi, our first major Buddhist Tantra, 298 later classified
as the principal work of the Caryatantra class, was conscious that it would be
accused of just this:
O [Vajrapani,] Lord of the Yaksas, in time to come there will arise people of in-
ferior understanding and no faith who will not believe this teaching. They will
dissent and have many doubts. They will hear it but they will not take it to heart
and they will refuse to put it into practice. Being themselves unworthy they will
bring others too to ruin. [For] they will say that this is not the teaching of the
Buddhas but belongs to the outsiders. 299
(em. [Tib. rdo rje rise nas Hung gis bskyod pa yi 'bar ba mams kyis]: jvalad-
bhivajragraumarutoddhrtair Cod.) || *udgacchad tad (corr. [Tib. de ni 'phar
bar] : udgacchantam Cod.) dhyayad dahanarci<h>sprsyamanaparadavad |
*urdhvagnena (?) (Tib. steng gi sgo nas) vimuktim buddhaksetram visuddham
va 'Then the Mantrin should take a blade of Kusa grass, visualize a sharp one-
pointed Vajra at its tip, place [that tip] at the aperture of the [corpse's] penis and
imagine that it is burning. Then concentrating his mind he should cause the shin-
ing consciousness that he has installed in the heart [of the corpse] to be driven
[up from the heart] by blazing wind-fanned Vajra-points and he should visualize
it rising to liberation or a pure Buddha-field through the upper [aperture], like [a
drop of] quick silver touched by tongues of fire'. The 'upper' is one of nine aper-
tures through which consciousness can leave the body at death (utkrantih). It is
located at the top of the head and is called 'the golden door' (kanakadvaram) by
Bhavabhatta in his commentary on the Catuspithatantra (Catuspithanibandha), f.
52r2: urdhveti kanakadvarena yada gacchati tada maranad urdhvam sighram eva
gater gatyantaram visistam gacchati. The point of exit depends upon the destiny of
the deceased. This is the best. According to Sunyasamadhivajra consciousness that
exits at death through this aperture goes to the Immaterial World (drupyadhdtuh):
sirasarupyam gacchet (f. 3r4). This idea that consciousness may leave the body
through various exits in accordance with its destiny is found widely in Brahmani-
cal sources. Early Buddhist sources speak rather of consciousness ceasing at death
at these points in the body; see Abhidharmakosabhasya on 3.43abc. Vasubandhu
says there that in the case of Arhats their consciousness disappears in the heart
according to some and in the head according to others: arhantah \ tesdm api hrdaye
vijnanam nirudhyate \ murdhnity apare.
298 See here p. 101.
299 rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud, f. 177rl-3: de la
gsang ba'i bdag po ma 'ongs pa'i dus na sems can bio zhan pa ma dad pa gang dag
bstan pa'i de la dad par mi 'gyur zhing yid gnyis dang som nyi mang ba | thos pa
tsam snying po ma 'dzin pa | sgrub ma la mi phyogs pa dag 'byung bar 'gyur te | de
dag ni bdag nyid kyang ma rung la gzhan yang phung bar byed pa yin no | 'di shad
du 'di ni phyi rol pa mams la yod de \ sangs rgyas mams kyi gsungs pa ni ma yin
no zhes smra bar 'gyur gyi.
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The Saiva Age
The Mahjusriyamulakalpa, another early Buddhist Tantric text, 300 assigned
to the lowest class of Mantranaya texts, known as the Kriyatantras, is more
explicit in this regard; and it has good reason to be so since it contains in its
chapters 47-49 an assimilated version of the cult of Tumburu and his four sis-
ters, that is to say, the cult of the vamasrotah division of the Saiva Vidyapitha,
describing the Mantras of these deities as the highest and most secret of all
the non-Buddhist (laukika-) Mantras. 301 Moreover, it teaches that any of the
300 The date of this text is obscure. Matsunaga (1985) is of the opinion that the
9th chapter, on applications of the Ekaksaramantra, was in existence before the
Chinese translations T 1181 of a.d. 702 and T 1182 of a.d. 703. He also in-
forms us (ibid. ) that the first ninety percent of the Chinese translation of the
Garudapatalaparivarta (T. 1276), produced at some time between 746 and 774, is
identical with the first sixty percent of the 41st chapter of the Mahjusriyamulakalpa
as edited. The translation is attributed to Amoghavajra (705-774), but Mat-
sunaga observes (ibid. ) that only the first part of the common text is in keeping
with his other translations, the latter part containing elements such as human hair,
beef, and skull-cups, which taken together are altogether alien to his Mantranaya.
He strengthens the hypothesis that only the first part of this translation is by
Amoghavajra with the evidence of the Go-shorai mokuroku, a catalogue of the Bud-
dhist texts brought from China to Japan by Kukai in 806, which lists this text as oc-
cupying three sheets, a third of the length of T 1276. The prophetic history of Indian
Buddhism, the Rajavyakarana, chapter 53 of the published Majusriyamulakalpa,
cannot be earlier that the late eighth century since it knows of the Pala king Gopala
(r. c. 750-775) (53.628; and 53.816: tatah parena *bhupalo gopalo [em. : bhupala
gopala Ed.] dasajivinah | bhavisyati). Since it does not mention his successor
Dharmapala it is unlikely to be later.
301 Manjusriyamulakalpa, introductory prose before 47.1: sarvalaukikamantranam
sdrabhutatamam paramarahasyam. The position within Saivism assigned by this
text to the cult of the four sisters suggests that, though later largely eclipsed by
other traditions of the Vidyapitha, it was once pre-eminent; and this is also cir-
cumstantial evidence in favour of the hypothesis proposed above (p. 50) that this
cult was one of the earliest, perhaps the earliest, of the esoteric Saiva systems.
There is certainly much other evidence of its early centrality. As we have seen,
it was known to Dharmakirti (here p. 50), and a 6th-century manuscript of one
of its texts survives amid the otherwise Buddhist Gilgit manuscripts (here p. 50).
The Visnudharmottara shows knowledge of only two Saiva deity-systems in its
section on iconography: the Saiddhantika and this (3, Adhyaya 66, teaches the
iconography of Tumburu and his sisters). The Advaitin Sankara in his Gitabhasya
on Bhagavadgita 9.25, in which it is said that those who worship the Spirits
(bhutejyah) reach the Spirits (bhutani yanti) [when they die], glosses bhutani as
vinayakamatrganacaturbhaginyadlni 'such as Vinayaka, the Mothers, and the Four
Sisters'. On his date, probably eighth century, see Harimoto 2006. These deities
were also incorporated in the traditions of Mandalas of the Nayasutra and the
Mahavairocanabhisambodhi that reached the Far East in the eighth century (see
Sanderson 2001, p. 8, fn. 5). Their cult was the basis of the Saiva ritual performed
to inaugurate the kingdom of Angkor at the beginning of the ninth century (ibid.
and 2005a, pp. 355-358); and there too, where the Mantramarga was preserved in
an early form, we see only the Siddhanta of its earliest texts and this cult. This
co-existence is also evident in the Saiva liturgies of Java and Bali, which are of
Saiddhantika character but incorporate these deities (see Goudriaan 1973 and
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Mantra-procedures taught in the Saiva and Garuda Tantras 302 will be effec-
tive if applied by Buddhists in the Mandala of these converted deities. 303 Thus
the Buddhists envisaged by this text have the whole array of Saiva Mantras
at their disposal; and this position, so surprising from the conventional Bud-
dhist standpoint, is justified by the claim that what people have come to refer to
as the Saiva, Garuda, and indeed Vaisnava Tantras are in fact Buddhist, since
they were first taught by Mahjusri in this "vast Kalpa", that is to say, in the
Manjusriyamulakalpa or, more probably, in a hypothetical proto-text of which
the actual text was thought to be an abbreviated redaction: 304
I have taught this Mantra [of Siva] which together with the trident Mudra
destroys all demons, out of my desire to benefit living beings. Those living on the
earth will say that its ancient Kalpa, that I taught in former times, was taught
by Siva. [Butl the various excellent extensive [Kalpasl in the Saiva Tantras are
in fact my teachings.
The extensive Kalpas that have been related in the Vaisnavas Tantras were
taught by Manjughosa for living beings who could only be trained by [this]
device. 306
All the extensive Kalpas taught in the Garuda Tantras were taught by me in
order to benefit living beings. 306
It was I that first taught, in this vast Kalpa, everything that the inhabitants
of earth without exception refer to as the teaching of Siva. It was only later
that others taught in the various texts [considered to be taught by him] the
Kalpamantras of the wise Siva Tumburu the Trader. 307
Sanderson 2005a, p. 373-374, fn. 76).
302 On the Saiva Garudatantras see here p. 46 and Slouber 2007.
303 Manjusriyamulakalpa 47.98c— 99b, 102ab, 103ab: yavanti saivatantre 'smim
ye tantre capi garude || brahmadyair rsimukhyais ca ...pujita kalpavistara
visnurudrasavasavaih | . . . tasmin mandale *yojya (conj. : yojya Ed.) siddhyantlha
na samsayah 'All the extensive Kalpas that have been taught in this Saivatantra
and, moreover, in the Garuda, and worshipped by Brahma and others, by the lead-
ing Rsis, ... by Visnu, Rudra, and Indra, will be mastered if applied in this Mandala.
Of this there is no doubt.
304 Manjusriyamulakalpa 2.32— 34b: esa mantro maya proktah sattvanam hitakamyaya
| sulamudrasamayuktah sarvabhutavinasakah || 33 yan maya kathitam purvam
kalpam asya puratanam | saivam iti vaksyante sattva bhutalavasinah || 34 vividha
gunavistarah saivatantre mayoditah.
305 2.31c-32b: ya eva vaisnave tantre kathitah kalpavistarah || upayavaineyasattvanam
manjughosena bhasitah.
306 2.37: yavantah garude tantre kathitah kalpavistarah \ te mayaivoditah sarve
sattvanam hitakaranat .
307 47.53—54: sarvam saivam iti khyatam sarvair bhutalavasibhih \ mayaiva nigaditam
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If this is so, then the text has disarmed criticism that the Mantra-procedures
that are presented as properly Buddhist in this text bear a suspiciously close re-
semblance to the non-Buddhist in their liturgical morphology. For if the Omni-
scient has revealed all forms of religion in consideration of the differing mental
dispositions of his manifold audiences, then there is no reason at all why he
should not in his wisdom have taught Tantric practice for Buddhists as well as
for outsiders. The strict division between the Buddhist and the non-Buddhist
has dissolved within a higher Buddhist intertextual unity. Indeed this very ar-
gument is deployed by *Buddhaguhya in the late eighth century in his commen-
tary on the passage of the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi cited above. 308 He argues
that what those who attack this Tantra for containing elements proper to the
non-Buddhist Tantras fail to realize is that those Tantras too were taught by the
omniscient Buddha. 309 So it follows that there nothing inherently un -Buddhist in
purvam kalpe-m asmim savistare || 54 pascad anyo janah prahuh kalpamantram
prthak prthak | Humburoh (corr. : tumburuh Ed.) sarthavahasya tryambakasya tu
*dhimatah (corr. : dhimateh Ed.).
308 *Buddhaguhya's teaching in the Kriya- and Carya- divisions of the Tantras is said
by Gzhon nu dpal (Blue Annals, p. 351) to have been pre-eminent in Tibet dur-
ing the first transmission of Esoteric Buddhism, from the latter half of the eighth
century; and this is confirmed by the Tibetan inventory of Buddhist texts in trans-
lation compiled in the Ldan dkar palace in the early ninth century. Its small sec-
tion of Tantras (gsang sngags kyi rgyud: entries 316-328) consists of nine texts of
this class together with commentaries on the last four, of which three are ascribed
to our author, those on the Vairocanabhisambodhi, the Sarvadurgatiparisodhana-
tejordjakalpa, and the Dhydnottara. The entry on the fourth commentary, that on
the Subdhufpariprcchd], lacks the name of its author, but it is at least probable
that it was from the same hand, since no other Indian commentary on this text is
known. The loss of the Sanskrit originals of these and other works of early exegesis
has left us without the means of confirming that his name, rendered Sangs rgyas
gsang ba in Tibetan, was indeed Buddhaguhya, as modern scholarship has gener-
ally assumed. The evidence is inconclusive. For when the name appears in Tibetan
sources in transcription rather than translation we find sometimes Buddhaguhya
and sometimes Buddhagupta. We see the latter in the Ldan dkar inventory (Lalou
1953, p. 326: slob dpon Bu ddha gu pta) and both forms are found in the colophons
of the translations of his works in the Tenjur (Hodge 1994, p. 70). The Tenjur con-
tains a letter (Toh. 4194) in which *Buddhaguhya addresses the Tibetan emperor
Khri srong lde btsan, who ruled from c. 756 until c. 797 (Dotson 2007) and offi-
cially adopted Buddhism c. 779. From it we learn that he was invited to Tibet by
Khri srong lde btsan but declined the invitation on the grounds of failing strength,
sending instead his commentary on the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi.
309 rNam par snang mdzad mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud chen po'i grel, f. 158v4-
6: de la gsang ba'i bdag po ma 'ongs pa'i dus na sems can bio zhan pa zhes pa
nas | de dag gis sngon sems can mams la phan par dgongs pai phyir | 'di thams
cad bstan par rob tu mi shes so zhes pai bar du lha mams kyi kha dog gang
yin pa dkyil 'khor yang de yin par gsungs pa | dbang po dang me'i dkyil 'khor la
sogs pa ni | 'jig Hen pa'i rgyud la yod kyi | 'jig Hen las 'das pa'i rgyud \ bya ba'i
rgyud dang spyod pa'i rgyud kun las mi 'byung bas na \ 'di ni sangs rgyas gsungs
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Buddhist Tantric practice, however closely it may resemble the Saiva; and Bud-
dhists, therefore, once they have understood this fact, may devote themselves
with full confidence to the rituals of the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi.
The Sarvatathagatattvasamgraha and the First Inroads of Sakta Saivism: Pos-
session, Goddesses, and the Sacralization of Sex
After the time of this text Tantric Buddhism did not, as one might expect,
rest content with the degree of assimilation of Saivism it had already achieved,
pa ma yin no zhes zer te | gang 'jig rten gyi | rgyud mams kyang | sangs rgyas
boom Idan 'das thams cad mkhyen pas sems can mams so so'i dad pa dang rjes
su mthun par mi shes pa zhes pa'i phyir ro zhes pa ste 'The statement that be-
gins "O [Vajrapani,] Lord of the Yaksas, in time to come [there will arise] people of
inferior understanding" refers to people who do not understand all that [the Bud-
dha] has taught for the welfare of past beings. [The Buddha] has taught [here]
that the colour of the Mandalas should be the same as those of [their presiding]
deities. But some will say that the Mandalas of Isvara and of fire and the rest are
found in the mundane Tantras [of the outsiders] and not at all in the supramun-
dane Tantras [of Buddhism, that is to say,] in the Kriyatantras or Caryatantras,
and that therefore they were not taught by the Buddha, [doing so] because they
do not understand that the Blessed omniscient Buddha, in conformity with the
various faiths of living beings, also taught [these] mundane Tantras'. This doc-
trine that all teaching is the Buddha's, that he has taught variously in the appear-
ance of the Buddha, Siva, and others, is set out in the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi
in a passage that survives in Sanskrit through its citation in the Ndmamantrd-
rthdvalokini, Vilasavajra's eighth-century commentary on the Ndmasamgiti, on
verse 42, f. 31vl-32r2: tathd coktam srivairocandbhisambodhitantre | bhaga-
vantas tathdgatd arhantah samyaksambuddhdh sarvajhajhanam prdpya tat sarva-
jhajhanam sarvasattvebhyo vibhajya ndndnayair ndnabhiprdyair ndnopdyanayair
dharmam desayanti sma \ kesam cit srdvakaydnanayam kesam cit pratyekabuddha-
yananayam kesam cin mahdydnanayam kesam cit pancdbhijhajhdnanayam kesam
cid devopapattaye kesam cin manusyopapattaye ydvan mahoragayaksardksasd-
suragandharvagarudakinnarddyupapattaye dharmam desayanti sma \ tatra ke
cit sattvd buddhavaineyikd buddharupena pasyanti. ke cic chrdvakarupena ke
cit pratyekabuddharupena ke cid bodhisattvarupena ke cin mahesvarariipena ke
cid brahmarupena ke cin ndrdyanarupena pasyanti sma | ke cid vaisravana-
rupena ydvan mahoragamanusydmanusyarupena pasyanti sma \ svakasvakair
vacanoddhdrananayair vividherydpatha<m> vyavasthitam | tac ca sarvajhajhanam
ekarasam yad uta tathatdvinirmuktirasam ity aha mahdvairocana iti. This is
closely related to and probably derives from the vaineyadharmopadesah, the eighth
Prakarana of the second Nirvyuha of the Kdrandavyuha (pp. 268-269). The Sad-
dharmapundarika likewise teaches (pp. 251-252) that Avalokitesvara assumes all
kinds of forms, including that of Siva, in order to teach living beings in considera-
tion of their particular dispositions. Strickmann informs us (1996, p. 440, n. 28)
that this passage is present in the Chinese translation completed by Dharmaraksa
in A.D. 286. It is probable that it is the model of the passage in the Kdrandavyuha.
The doctrine that the non-Buddhist teachers are a device (updyah) of the Buddha
is also taught in the fourth chapter of the Bodhisattvagocaropdyavisayavikurvana-
nirdesasutra, which survives in two Chinese translations, the first by Gunabhadra
in the fifth century; see ZlMMERMANN 2000, p. 18.
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working only to infuse the new liturgical system with ever more clearly Buddhist
purpose and meaning. On the contrary, with the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha,
the next major Tantra, which was considered to be the foundational text of the
Yogatantra class, which follows the Caryatantras in the ascending hierarchy of
the classification of the Mantranaya, and was in existence in a shorter version by
the end of the seventh century and expanded in the course of the eighth, 310 we
find the beginning of a process of assimilation of Sakta Saiva language, practices,
iconography, and concepts that would become ever more comprehensive through-
out the rest of the Mantranaya's creativity Here we find for the first time the
requirement that candidates enter a state of possession (avesah) at the time of
their initiation. This feature, which is altogether alien to antecedent Buddhism,
is the hallmark of initiation in the Saiva Kaula systems, setting them apart from
all others. 311 The Vajracarya puts the candidate into a state of possession, has
310 See Matsunaga 1978, pp. xvii-xvii.
311 See, e.g., Tantrdloka 29.186c-220; Tantrdlokaviveka introducing 29.201c-202b:
samdvesah sarvasdstresv avigdnenoktah; SANDERSON 1985, pp. 200—202; 1986, p.
169 and fn. 2; and Wallis 2008. The centrality of possession in the Sakta Saiva do-
main may derive from its Kapalika antecedents, since the Saiddhantika Saivas re-
port that the Kapalikas [of the Atimarga] defined liberation as arising from a state
of possession (avesah) by the qualities of the deity, analogous to the state of one
who is possessed by a Bhuta (bhutdvistapurusavat [Naresvarapariksdprakdsa on
1.61]); see, e.g., Pauskarabhdsya, p. 232: svayam dvisyate siddhah purusas tu gra-
hair iva \ ittham caiva tu kdpdlds tat samyam muktim ucire; and Saivaparibhdsd,
p. 156, 11. 22-24: kdpdlikdh samdvesena samyam upagacchanti | tathd hi yathd
grahdh purusam avisanti tathesvaragund muktesv avisanti. They are distinguished
in this context from the two other Atimargic traditions, those of the Pancarthika
Pasupatas, who defined liberation as the transference of the state of equality with
Siva in the manner in which one lamp is lit from another (sdmyasamkrdntivddah),
and the Lakulas, who defined it as the arising of this state (sdmyotpattivddah); see
Sanderson 2006, pp. 179-181. This hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that
possession by the deity as the goal of practice is a marked feature of the Picumata
and Yoginisamcdra of the Vidyapitha, texts in which the perpetuation within the
Mantramarga of the Kapalika tradition of the Atimarga is particularly clear. Both
describe the goal of their Kapalika-style asceticism as the entry of the deity pro-
pitiated into the person of the propitiator. Picumata f. 101vl-3 (2.114c-117):
duscaram devagandharvais tvayd cirnam mahdvratam || 115 varam varepsitam
vatsa udyatam tu bravThi me | yadi tusto 'si bhagavan pravisa mama vigraham ||
116 vaktram prasarayasveti pravisya bhagavan prabhuh \ hrdaye bhairavo devo
guhyaka tu gale sihitdh || 117 mataro hy ahga-m-ahgesu yoginyo sandhisu sthitdh \
sakinyo romakupesu putanddya tathaiva ca '[Bhairava says:l You have [nowl com-
pleted the observance of the [Kapalika] Mahavrata, which is hard [even] for the
gods and Gandharvas. Choose whatever boon you desire. Tell me without hesita-
tion [what it is]. [The Sadhaka replies:] If you are pleased, O Lord, enter my body.
Telling him to open his mouth the Lord God Bhairava enters his heart. [His prin-
cipal Saktis,] the [four] Guhyakas occupy his neck, the Mother goddesses his limbs,
the Yoginls his joints, and the Sakinis, Putanas, and others the pores of his skin';
cf. f. 335rl-2 (87.126c— 128b): bhairavasya mahdmudrd mudrdsdnaidhyakdrikd ||
127 prayuktd tu yadd mudrd laksanena vardnane \ bhdvdtmakavidhdnena sadyo
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
him cast a flower on to the Mandala to determine from the section on which it
falls the Mantra-deity from which he will obtain Siddhi, and then, while he is
still in this state, removes his blindfold to reveal the Mandala. He then conse-
crates him with scented water from a Mantra-empowered vase, places a Vajra
in his hand, and gives him his initiation-name (vajranama). 312 The immediate
effects of the possession are described as follows: 313
As soon as he becomes possessed supernatural knowledge arises [in him].
Through this knowledge he understands the thoughts of others; he knows all
matters past, future and present; his heart becomes firm in the teachings of
the Tathagatas; all his sufferings cease; he is free from all dangers; no being
can kill him; all the Tathagatas enter-and-empower him; all Siddhis approach
him; unprecedented joys arise [in him], causing spontaneous delight, pleasure,
and happiness. In some these joys give rise to meditation-states, in some to [the
mastery of] Dharams, in some to the fulfilment of every hope, and in some to the
state of identity with all the Tathagatas.
312
313
mantro vijrmbhati || 128 karoti sddhakdvesam japadhydnavivarjitd 'O fair-faced
one, the Mahamudra of Bhairava draws every Mudra nigh. When it is employed
correctly with full subjective immersion the [deity of the] Mantra immediately be-
comes manifest. [The Mudra] brings about possession in the Sadhaka without
[need of] Mantra-repetition or visualization'. The Yoginlsamcdra requires any-
one who has gone through its initiation ceremony and then received consecra-
tion (abhisekah) to adopt one of three forms of ascetic observance in order to gain
mastery over the Vidya (vidydvratam): the Bhairavavrata, the Camundavrata, or
the Trisastikulavrata, the observance of the sixty-three families [of the Mothers],
which it also calls the Kapalavrata, i.e. the Kapalika. At the end of the obser-
vance, we are told, the Mothers will enter his body: dvitiyam tu vratam vaksye
ghoram kdpdlarupinam || 8.41 sire kapdlamukutam siramdldvibhusitam \ kare
karnau tathd pddau asthikhandair vibhusitam || 8.42 vdme kapdlam khatvdhgam
tathd vai daksine kare | smasdne vicaren mauni trisasti divasdni tu | 8.43 vratdnte
tu vardrohe sarire mdtaro dhruvam | visante devadevesi dadante siddhim uttamdm
'[Now] I shall teach [you] a second observance, the grim Kapalavrata. He should
have a skull-crown on his head and be adorned with a garland of heads. His hands,
ears, and feet should be adorned with pieces of bone. In his left hand he should hold
a skull-bowl and in his right a skull-staff. He should wander in silence in a crema-
tion ground for sixty-three days. It is certain that at the end of this observance the
Mothers, O fair-hipped empress of the gods, enter his body and bestow the highest
Siddhi'.
Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha, sections 224—234.
Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha, section 226: dvistamdtrasya divyam jhdnam
utpadyate | tena jhdnena paracittdny avabudhyati sarvakdrydni cdtitdndgata-
vartamdndni jdndti hrdayam cdsya drdhibhavati sarvatathdgatasdsane sarva-
duhkhdni cdsya pranasyanti sarvabhayavigatas ca bhavaty avadhyah sarva-
sattvesu sarvatathdgatds cddhitisthanti sarvasiddhayas cdsydbhimukhibhavanti
apurvdni cdsydkdranaharsaratipritikardni sukhdny utpadyante | taih sukhaih
kesdm cit samddhayo nispadyante kesdm cid dhdranyah kesdm cit sarvdsd-
paripurayo ydvat kesdm cit sarvatathdgatatvam api nispadyata iti.
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and, after the bindfold has been removed: 314
As soon as he sees the Great Mandala he is entered-and-empowered by all the
Tathagatas and Vajrasattva dwells in his heart. He sees various visions of
orbs of light and miraculous transformations. Because he has been entered-
and-empowered by all the Tathagatas sometimes the Lord Vajradhara or the
Buddha appears to him in his true form. From that time forth he attains all his
goals, every desire of his mind, all Siddhis, up to the state of Vajradhara or the
Tathagatas.
Anandagarbha gives a detailed account of the means by which the candidate
is put into this state of possession in the Sarvavajrodaya, his manual on the rites
of initiation into the Mandala of this Tantra, and makes it clear that entering this
state is, as in the Kaula parallel, an absolute requirement. If the candidate fails
to enter it by the standard means, the Vajracarya is to perform a rite to remove
the sins that are assumed to be the cause, and if the candidate still fails to enter
the possession state, he may not proceed further: 315
If possession does not occur, because [the candidate] has committed [too] many
sins, he should proceed to destroy those sins by repeatedly making the Sin-
Destruction Mudra. With concentrated mind he should kindle a fire with sticks
of sweet wood and burn all his sins by casting into it oblations of sesame seeds
with the Mantra om sarvapapadahanavajraya svaha. He should make a
simulacrum of those sins with black sesame seeds on the palm of his right hand
and visualizing the [wrathful] syllable HUM in the centre he should offer it into
the fire with his index finger and thumb. Then he should imagine that the sin
is being incinerated in his body by Vajras wrapped in flames emerging from the
fire-pit. [The candidate] will definitely become possessed. If possession does not
occur even so, then he must not give him the consecration. 316
314 Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha, section 231: mahdmandale ca drstamdtre sarva-
tathdgatair adhisthyate vajrasattvas cdsya hrdaye tisthati \ ndnddydni ca rasmi-
mandaladarsanddlni prdtihdryavikurvitdni pasyati | sarvatathdgatddhisthitatvdt
kadd cid bhagavdn mahdvajradharah svarupena darsanam daddti tathdgato veti
| tatah prabhrti sarvdrthdh sarvamanobhirucitakdrydni sarvasiddhir ydvad vajra-
dharatvam api tathdgatatvam veti.
315 Sarvavajrodaya, f. 61r4-vl (exposures 009a and 008b): atha pdpabahutvdd
dveso na bhavati punah pdpasphotanamudrayd tasya punah punah pdpdni spho-
tavydni \ samidbhir madhurair agnim prajvdlya susamdhitah \ nirdahet sarva-
pdpdni tilahomena tasya tu || OM SARVAPAPADAHANAVAJRAYA SVAHA iti \ daksina-
hastatale krsnatilaih pdpapratikrtim krtvd humkdramadhyam vicintya tarjany-
ahgusthdbhydm homam kurydt | tato homakunddn nirgatya jvdldmdldkulair va-
jrais tasya sarire pdpam dahyamdnam cintayen niyatam dvisati | evam api
yasydveso na bhavati tasydbhisekam na kurydd iti.
316 Cf Tantrdloka 29.29.210-211b: athavd kasyacin naivam dvesas tad dahed imam
| bahir antas coktasaktyd pated ittham sa bhutale || yasya tv evam api sydn na
tarn atropalavat tyajet 'Or, if some rare person does not become possessed by this
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
It is certain that the possession intended is not nominal or figurative. For
Anandagarbha tells us that once the Vajracarya is sure that the candidate is in
this state he should use him as an oracle: 317
Then when the Acarya has ascertained that [the candidate] is possessed he should
form the Samayamudra of Vajrasattva and address him with [the Mantras] HE
VAJRASATTVA HE VAJRARATNA HE VAJRADHARMA HE VAJRAKARMA and NRTYA
SATTVA nrtya vajra (Dance, O Sattva; Dance, O Vajra). If he is indeed
possessed he will adopt the Vajrasattvamudra. Then the Acarya should show the
Mudra of the Vajra Fist. By this means all the deities beginning with Vajrasattva
make themselves present [in him]. Then he should ask him something that he
wishes [to ascertain], with the following [procedure]. He should visualize a Vajra
on the tongue of the possessed and say Speak, O Vajra. [The candidate] then
tells him everything [that he wishes to know]. 318
means he should visualize him being burned both internally and externally by the
Power [of the Mantra] taught above. By this means he will fall to the ground.
If a person does not achieve [the state of possession] even by this means then
in this [system] he must cast him aside like a stone'. Falling to the ground is
commonly mentioned in Kaula texts as the consequence of initiatory possession;
see, e.g., Matasdra f. 39v2-3: ydvanmdtram vihvalam ca vedhayet pdsapahjaram
| pdsastobhdt pataty dsu bhutale ndtra samsayah; Jayadrathaydmala, Satka
4, bhairavdnandvidh.au bhumikdpatalah, f. 191v (v. 105ab): saktiksobhdt tadd
yogi viddho patati bhutale; Devidvyardhasatikd f. 16v: 197 tatksandt patate
bhumau chinnamula iva drumah; Chummdsamketaprakdsa, first surviving verse:
[ta]ddrkpdtamahodaydt | bhumau sampatitah ksiprdc chinnamula iva drumah;
Urmikauldrnava f. 9r3: *pahcdvasthdgatah (em. : pancdvasvagatah Cod.) sdksdt
sa viddhah patate bhuvi; f. 19v5-6 (2.230-231): pracalanti *mahdpdsd (corr. :
mahdpdsam Cod.) dvesam tasya jdyate \ dnando hy udbhavah kampo nidrd ghurmis
tu pancami || tattvaviddhasya devesi pancdvasthd bhavanti hi | sa viddhah patate
bhumau vajrapdtdd ivdcala<h>; the Kaula Vrddhasvacchanda ff. 17v24-18r2, Ed.
10.15c— 17a (using this MS alone): jhdtvd srisaktisamkrdmam sadevdsuramdnusdn
|| *vedhayen (em. : vedayen Cod. Ed.) ndtra sandeham pdtayet parvatdny api ||
*sakrtsamkrdmayogena (Cod. : cakrdt sahkrdmayogena Ed.) '^chinnamula (Ed. :
chinnamulam Cod.) iva drumah || patanti dehinah sarve; 10.25ab, Ed. 10.25ab: sa
viddhah patate bhumau *vajrdghdtdd ivdcalah (em. : vajrdghdtam ivdcalam Cod.
Ed.).
317 Sarvavajrodaya, f. 61v2— 3: tatah samdvistam jndtvdcdryena HE VAJRASATTVA HE
VAJRARATNA HE VAJRADHARMA HE VAJRAKARMA iti vajrasattvasamayamudrdm
baddhvoccdranlyam | punar NRTYA SATTVA NRTYA VAJRA iti | sa ced dvistah
srlvajrasattvamudrdm badhniydt | taddcdryena *vajramustimudropadarsaniyd
(niyd corr. : niydh Cod.) | evam sarve srivajrasattvddayah *sdnnidhyam (corr.
: sannidhyah Cod.) kalpayanti | tato 'bhipretavastu prcched anena \ jihvdydm
*tasydvistasya (em. : tasydvistasydvistasya Cod.) vajram vicintya bruhi vajra iti
vaktavyam | tatah sarvam vadati.
318 The inducing of possession in persons so that they may be used as oracles, is not
restricted in Tantric Buddhism to the context of initiation. It is also seen as an
independent procedure in which the medium is a young boy or girl. We find it in
the Tantra Subdhupariprcchd in a section partly translated and partly paraphrased
from the Chinese by Strickmann (1996, pp. 222-226), a work that was translated
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into Chinese (T. 895) by Subhakarasimha in 726 and was in the hands of the Chinese
monk Wu-xing in 674 (Hodge 2003, p. 18). We also see it in the Suji li yan mo xi
shou luo dian shuojia lu luo a wei she fa 'The quickly effective method of possession
(avesah) taught by the god Mahesvara' (T. 1277). This short scriptural text, whose
translation from the Sanskrit is assigned to Bukong (Amoghavajra) and to a date
between 746 and 774, claims in its preamble that it is a teaching given by Siva
(Mahesvara) to Narayana on Mt. Gandhamadana in answer to the latter's request.
It sets forth a procedure to induce the messenger (Duta) of Mahesvara to possess a
young girl aged seven or eight so that he can then use her while she is in this state
to answer any questions he has concerning the future. He should have her fast by
eating nothing but pure foods for three or seven days. Then on an auspicious day
he bathes her, anoints her with unguents, gives her clean clothes, puts camphor in
her mouth, sits facing East, smears a low wooden platform with sandalwood-paste,
has the girl stand on it, scatters flowers in front of her, sets up a vessel of Argha
water, takes incense, empowers it seven times with the Mahamudramantra, lights
the incense and fumigates the girl's hands with it, takes a red flower, empowers it,
places it in her hands, and passes his hands over her face. Then, with his hand
forming a Mudra he touches and thus empowers five parts of his own body and then
with the same Mudra touches the girl's head, her mouth, his heart, and his navel
visualizing in these the symbols of fire, water, earth, and wind respectively. He then
empowers his two legs, visualizes Garuda, puts the armour-Mantra on the girl's
body, and visualizes himself as Mahesvara, three-eyed, with the digit of the moon
on his crown, blue-faced, eighteen-armed, and brandishing various weapons, with
a snake as his sacred thread, wearing the bleeding hide of an elephant. He then
protects her with recitation, empowers flowers, incense, and Argha water with the
Mahamudramantra, and seals the ten directions. Then facing the girl the Sadhaka
recites the Mantra of Mahesvara's Duta. The girl will start to tremble. This reveals
to him that the Duta has entered her. He then snaps his fingers and recites the
Mantra. If she does not fall into the possession trance he should recite a further
Mantra to incite the Duta to enter her. By this means the result is certain. He then
interrogates her about good and bad in the future and is told whatever he wishes to
know. This account is based on an oral translation of the Chinese text very kindly
provided by my colleague Notake Miyako (Leipzig). A French translation of part
of the text, without the visualizations, is given in Hobogirin, p. 7.
Here too the model is Saiva, as the preamble and content of this text suggest.
Putting children into a possession-state is already present in the earliest liter-
ature of the Saiva Mantramarga, where we find the use of Ksatriya and brah-
min boys for this purpose; see Nisvasatattvasamhita f. 82vl-2 (Nisvasaguhya
10.116— 117b): athavesam kartukafmah] + + ksatrakumdrakam | sndpayitvd tarn
ekam tu suddhadehah savasakam || purvamukham sthapayitva hy udakenavesayet;
f. 112v6 (Nisvasaguhya 17.30): athavesam kartukamo brahmanakumarafkam +
ujdakena snapya tenaiva tadyamanam avesayed vacayd moksah. The ritual also
appears in narrative literature. The Kathasaritsagara (70.55-63) tells a story of
an ash-smeared ascetic, a pupil of Suddhakirti, who has mastered many Mantras
and claims to have done this with a Ksatriya boy (56cd: subhalaksanam asadya
kamcit ksatrakumdrakam), who in his trance revealed the whereabouts of many
miraculous herbs and elixirs (57: sa kumarah samavistah prsto nanavidhani me
| siddhausadhirasaksetrany udiryedam athabravlt), and, finally, a palace of the
Nagas in a pollen-covered pond in the jungles of the Vindhya mountains, where,
with the help of Viras, he could obtain a sword that would make him lord of the
Siddhas. The procedure is referred to there as a svasthavesah 'a [rite of caus-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Nor is possession restricted in the Sarvatathagatasamgraha to the context of
initiation. The term dvesah is used repeatedly in the text to denote the state that
ing oracular] possession in one who is healthy (svasthah) [in body and mind]'
(70.56ab: so 'ham kadapy akaravam svasthavesam prasahgatah), and it appears
under this name frequently in the Vidyapitha, where in accordance with that lit-
erature's Sakta character the medium is, as in the Su ji li yan mo xi shou luo
dian shuo jia lu luo a wei she fa, a young girl. We see this in Jayadrathayamala,
Satka 2, f. 19r9— v3 (6.54c— 59): kanyam sulaksanopetam dhutavasam manoharam
|| 55 svalamkrtam atah krtva ratrav eva mahesvari \ dattva dhupam tato vidyam
avart'ye<t> sadhakesvarah || 56 tavad avartayed ghoram yavad avesam apnuyat
| divyabhaumantariks*adyam (conj. : adya Cod.) avesam kurute ksanat || 57
hastardham ca ksitim tyaktva tisthate vikrtanana \ tada mahalipisitais tar-
payet suravandite || 58 prahvas ca pranato bhutva prcchet sadhakasattamah |
sadasivadiksityante yavan manasi rocate || 59 tat sarvam kathayed devi yad anyam
va hrdi sthitam | evam prstva visarjeta pranamya paramesvari 'Then, at night, O
Mahesvari, the lord among Sadhakas should adorn a pretty young girl endowed
with excellent characteristics and wearing freshly washed clothes, fumigate her
with incense, and then begin to repeat [the Vidya of] Ghora. He should con-
tinue to repeat it until she becomes possessed. Immediately [her understand-
ing] penetrates all that is in the heavens, on the earth, and in the sky. With
her face contorted she hovers half a cubit above the ground. Then, O honoured
by the gods, he should gratify her with offerings of wine and meat. He should
then bow low before her and put his questions to her. O goddess, she will tell
him all that he wishes to know in the whole universe, from the level of Sadasiva
down to Earth, and other matters that are concealed in his heart. When he
has interrogated her in this way, O Paramesvari, he should prostrate himself in
veneration and allow her to leave'; and Jayadrathayamala, Satka 3, f. 99v2-6
(14.70—76): atha sadhayitum vanche<t> svasthavesanam uttamam \ tada kanyam
samaniya sarvalaksanalaksitam \\ 71 asane tarn pratisthapya sugupte varamandire
| raktakrsnambaradharam raktasrakkanthasobhitam \\ 72 subhasanastham tarn
kuryat palaliparipuritam \ avyucchinnam dahed dhupam vidyam avartayet tatah
|| 73 tada sa kampate kanya ghurnate hasate punah \ ghantam pravadayet tatra
mahamantra*vidhau (conj. : vikai Cod.) sthitah \\ 74 tata avisate turnam devadevT
krsodarl \ tyaktva bhumim tisthate sa tada *sa (corr. : sa Cod.) pranatah puman
|| 75 tarpayet paramesanim nanabalyopaharatah \ tada sadhakamukhyaya vadate
*manasepsitam (corr. : manasipsitam Cod.) || 76 bhutam bhavyam bhavisyam ca
kalatrayam athakhilam \ brahmandodaraga varta<h> sadhakaya vadaty asau 'If
he desires to accomplish the supreme rite of svasthdvesah he should bring a young
girl who possesses all the necessary characteristics and set her on a seat in an excel-
lent building that is well concealed. Her seat should be of fine quality. She should
be dressed in a dark red garment; her neck should be adorned with a garland of
red flowers; and her mouth should be filled with wine and meat. He should burn
incense without interruption and then repeat the Vidya again and again. Then the
girl begins to tremble, swoon, and laugh. Established in the procedure of the Great
Mantra he should ring his bell. The emaciated Goddess will immediately enter [the
girl], who will then rise and hover above the ground. The Sadhaka should then
prostrate himself before her and gratify the Goddess with the offering of a various
Balis. Then [speaking through the girl] she will tell that excellent Sadhaka what-
ever he desires to know. She will explain to him [anything he wishes to ascertain
in] the three times, past, present, and future], all events within the entire sphere of
Brahma'.
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The Saiva Age
the practioner must induce in himself in order to accomplish both his Siddhis and
his enlightenment, typically in the compound vajravesah 'possession by Vajra'.
For example:
For by means of possession by [Vajrajsattva enlightenment will quickly be at-
tained. 319
When he has given rise to dvesah in this way whatever form he meditates on as
his own will automatically become Buddha in form. 320
When vajravesah has arisen he should visualize the water as an embodiment of
the Vajra. Quickly achieving success he will be able to walk on [that] water. 321
Once he has generated vajravesah, if with concentrated mind he makes a slight
clap with his palms in the Vajranjali [gesture] he can subject to his control even a
mountain. 322
Likewise, by virtue of the practice of dvesah, if he stretches out [his hands in] the
Vajra gesture and strikes together the tips of his fingers he can kill a hundred
families. 323
Two other features of this seminal text evidence the influence of Sakta
Saivism. The first is the fact that after teaching the Vajradhatumandala in
its opening section it goes on to teach the Vajraguhyamandala, in which the
five Tathagatas are replaced by goddesses: Vairocana at the centre by Va-
jradhatvisvari and, around her in the four directions, Aksobhya by Vajravajrini,
Ratnasambhava by Ratnavajrini, Amitayus by Dharmavajrini, and Amogha-
siddhi by Karmavajrini. 324 In the preamble Vajrapani makes the following
joyous declaration (udanam): 325
Ah, how benevolent is the Bodhicitta to all beings! For the Buddhas take on even
female form to accord with [the expectations of] their disciples (vineyavasat).
319 Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, section 167: yat sattvavesayogad dhi ksipram bo-
dhir avapyata iti.
320 Section 238: tathaivdvesam utpddya yad rupam svayam dtmanah | *bhdvayen (em.
: bhdvayan Ed.) bhavate tat tu buddharupam api svayam.
321 Section 238: vajrdvese samutpanne vajrabimbamayam jalam | bhdvayet
ksiprasiddhas tu jalasyopari cahkramet.
322 Section 247: vajrdvesam samutpadya talam dadyat samahitah | vajranjalitalaih
suksmam parvato 'pi vasam nayet.
323 Section 247: tathaivavesavidhina vajrabandhe (conj. : bandha Ed.) prasarite
agrdhgulisamasphotad dhanet kulasatam ksanat.
324 Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, sections 319—327.
325 Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, section 322: aho hi bodhicittasya sarvasattva-
hitaisita \ yad vineyavasad virah strirupam api kurvate.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The second is the incorporation of sexual intercourse into the activities of
worship as a higher form of practice. This element is not conspicuous because it
is not mentioned in the treatments of the principal Mandalas taught in the text
and it was therefore easily pushed out of view when this text was propagated
in China and thence in Japan. It is present nonetheless as an esoteric teach-
ing reiterated many times throughout the text in the form of passages teaching
that the pleasure of sexual union and indeed other sensual delights are a means
both of worshipping the Buddha and of attaining Siddhis when combined with
meditation on one's Buddha nature. For example:
1: If after generating a firm intention to attain enlightenment he meditates on
himself as the Buddha and worships himself [as the Buddha] with the pleasure of
sexual intercourse he will obtain the joys of the Buddha himself.
2: He will quickly become equal to Vajrasattva if he presents the pleasures of em-
bracing the body of any [womanl as offerings to the Buddhas. He will be become
equal to Vajraratna if he presents the pleasures of grasping [her] hair in intensely
felt love as offerings to the Buddhas. He will become equal to Vajradharma if he
presents the exquisite pleasures of kissing while immersed in intense sensual
delight as offerings to the Buddhas. He will become the equal of Vajrakarma if
during his worship he completely offers up to the Buddhas the pleasures of the
union of the two sex organs.
3: He will attain success in the Mandala by means of the union of the two sex or-
gans while meditating with fully concentrated mind on the meditation state that
embodies all things.
4: Non-detachment from sensual pleasures: this is the greatest and purest rule
of discipline [for an initiate] in the family of the Tathagatas. It may not be trans-
gressed even by the Buddhas.
5: There is no religious duty purer than [the exercise of] sexual desire, the be-
stower of all joys. This, which brings about Siddhi, is the highest duty in the
family of the Tathagatas.
6: During worship with the four prostrations he will quickly attain Siddhi if when
exhausted from the exertion of love-making he offers [to the Buddhas] the plea-
sure which that love-making aroused.
7: He will attain Siddhi if while meditating with in-turned mind on the purity of
lust he worships the Buddhas with the drops of his semen. 326
326 1 Section 288: bodhicittadrdhotpadad buddho 'ham iti cintayan | ratya tu puja-
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The Saiva Age
The Guhyasamdja: copulating deities, sexual initiation rites, and the sacraliza-
tion of impurity
In the next phase of the Mantranaya, seen in the Guhyasamdja, also a
product of the eighth century, this esoteric eroticism has moved to the fore-
ground; and this is apparent from the very beginning of the text. For the place
where the Buddha is said to have been residing at the time that he revealed this
Tantra, which was expected to be stated in the preamble (nidanavakyam) of any
scripture claiming to be Buddhist, is not one of the familiar sites of revelation
such as Rajagrha, Dhanyakataka, or, as in the Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha,
the Akanistha heaven, but the vaginas of the goddesses Locana, Mamaki,
Pandaravasini, and Tara, that is to say, a timeless, unlocated bliss: 327
[I aver that] I once heard the following [teaching]. The Venerable Lord was re-
siding in the vaginas of the Vajra-women of the body, speech, and mind of all the
Tathagatas . . .
and this surprising relocation, no doubt provocatively shocking in its time,
became standard in the subsequent literature of the Mantranaya, both in
texts closely related to the Guhyasamdja and in the next wave of texts, the
Yoginitantras, in which the influence of the Sakta Saiva tradition became much
more intense and pervasive. 328
yann dtmd labhed buddhasukhdny api; 2 Sections 549-553: sarvakdyaparisvahga-
sukhapujdh svayambhuvdm | nirydtayan bhavec chighram vajrasattvasamo hi sah
|| drdhdnurdgasamyogakacagrahasukhdni tu | niryatayams tu buddhanam va-
jraratnasamo bhavet \\ drdhapritisukhdsakticumbitdgryasukhdni tu | niryatayams
tu buddhanam vajradharmasamo bhavet \\ dvayendriyasamdpattiyogasaukhydni
sarvatah \ niryatayams tu pujdydm vajrakarmasamo bhaved iti; 3 Section 1825:
visvarupasamddhim tu bhdvayan susamdhitah | dvayendriyasamdpattyd mandate
tu sa sidhyati; 4 Section 2168: kdmdndm avirdgas tu samayah sumahdn ayam \
tathdgatakule suddho ndtikramyo jinair api; 5 Section 2175: rdgdc chuddhataro
ndsti dharmah sarvasukhapradah \ tathdgatakule 'py esa dharmah siddhikarah
parah; 6 Section 2506: suratasramakhinnas tu tat saukhyam suratodbhavam
catuhprandmapujdydm nirydtya laghu sidhyati; and 7 Section 2651: antargatena
manasd kdmasuddhim tu bhdvayan | svaretobindubhir buddhdn pujayan siddhim
dpnuydt. Other passages advocating sexual intercourse in worship are to be found
in sections 475-479, 525-529, 929-932, 1184, 1790-1792, 1918-21, 2071-2074,
2158-2159, 2177, 2360-2363, 2415-2416, 2419-2421, 2425, 2439, 2443, 2445, 2504,
2508, 2510, 2512, 2516, 2672, 2720, 2950, and 2951.
327 Guhyasamdja, preamble: evam mayd srutam ekasmin samaye | bhagavdn sarvata-
thdgatakdyavdkcittahrdayavajrayosidbhagesu vijahdra.
328 This same formula, or a variant, is seen in the Vajramdld (rDo rje phreng ba), f.
208r2-3: bcom Idan 'das de bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi sku dang gsung dang
thugs kyi sning po rdo rje btsun mo'i bha ga mams la (as in the Guhyasamdja]), the
Krsnayamdri (sarvatathdgatakdyavdkcittasarvavajrayosidbhagesu), and in those of
the Yoginitantras that have a nidanavakyam: the Hevajra and Samputodbhava
(both as in the Guhyasamdja), the Vajrdmrta (f. lvl: sarvatathdgatakdyavdk-
cittahrdayavajrdmrtaguhyapadmesu), Vajrdrali (rDo rje a ra li, f. 171r2-3: de
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
In the Guhyasamdja the male deities, now multi-faced and multi-armed in
a fusion of Saiva and Buddhist iconography, are represented and visualized cop-
ulating with their consorts; 329 and both initiation and subsequent practice now
involve copulation with a female partner, as in the Saktism of the Saivas. 330 A
further borrowing from the Vidyapitha is evident in the introduction of a cru-
cial element of what that tradition calls 'non-dualistic practice' (advaitacarah)
and both traditions call 'practice free of inhibition' (nihsankacarah), namely the
offering to the deities of such 'impure' substances as urine, faeces, semen, and
blood, and their sacramental consumption. 331
bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi shes rab kyi pha rol tu phyin pa'i bha ga
la [*sarvatathdgataprajndpdramitdbhage]), Candamahdrosana (sarvatathdgata-
kdyavdkcittahrdayavajradhdtvlsvaribhage), Abhidhdnottara (f. Iv3: sarvatathd-
gatavajrakrodhaddkaddkinlguhyahrdayesu), Samvarodaya (sarvatathdgatakdya-
vdkcittavajrayoginibhagesu), and Ddkdrnava (f. lvl: mahdviresvarasarvatathd-
gatavlrakdyavdkcittayoginibhagesu).
' This is the case in both of the major Mandalas based on this Tantra, that of saffron-
coloured Vajrasattva-Manjuvajra and that of black Aksobhya. For the full iconog-
raphy of these pantheons see Nispannayogdvali A, pp. 1-7; B, pp. 1-12. The prin-
cipal difference between them is that in the Aksobhyamandala only Aksobhya, the
central deity (cakresvarah) and the ten wrathful Krodharajas that form the outer
protective circle are represented embracing consorts (sasvdbhaprajndh), whereas
in the Manjuvajramandala this is also the case with the four Tathagatas (Vairo-
cana, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghasiddhi) that occupy the four direc-
tions around the central deity. All the deities in both Mandalas are three-faced and
six-armed and all except the Krodharajas, who stand in the aggressive Pratyalidha
posture, are seated in the Vajraparyanka posture. None of the deities has any of the
Kapalika attributes that mark the iconography of the Yogimtantras, namely the
skull-bowl, skull-staff, bone-ornaments, and coating of ash.
' The Guhyasamdja proper (chapters 1-17) gives little detail in its account of initia-
tion and makes no mention of the involvement of a consort, speaking of the neces-
sity of acquiring such a partner only in the context of the post-initiatory practice
known as the vidyavratam; see 16.93: sodasdbdikdm grhya sarvdlahkdrabhusitdm
| cdruvaktrdm visdldksim prdpya vidyavratam caret After obtaining a girl of six-
teen with a charming face and wide eyes, adorned with every adornment, he should
practice the Vidyavrata [with her]'. The supplementary 18th chapter, however, the
Samdjottara, gives an account of the initiation involving copulation in its vv. 113-
127.
L See, e.g., Guhyasamdja 4.21: vinmutrasukraraktddin devatdndm nivedayet | evam
tusyanti sambuddhd bodhisattvd mahdsaydh 'He should offer to the deities such
things as urine, faeces, semen, and blood. In this way the noble Buddhas [and]
Bodhisattvas are gratified' (cf. the following in the Guhyasamdja's satellite Tantra
Vajrahrdaydlamkdra, Patala 3 [rDo rje snyingpo rgyangyi rgyud f. 39v3-4]: bshang
gci khu ba khrag mams ni | dung chenpo ru bzhag byas te | lha mams la ni dbul bar
bya 'He should place faeces, urine, semen, and blood in a human skull [mahdsahkhe]
and offer them to the deities'); 6.21: vinmutrdhdrakrtydrtham kurydt siddhiphald-
rthinah \ sidhyate 'nuttaram tattvam bodhicittam andvilam 'If he desires to attain
Siddhi he should consume faeces and urine. [By this means] he will master the
ultimate reality, the spotless Bodhicitta'; 7.33ab: samaydt ksared retam tu vidhind
pibet phalakdnksinah 'In accordance with the rule of the discipline he should ejac-
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The Saiva Age
ulate his semen and drink it if he desires to attain his goal'; 12.47cd: pahcdmrta-
prayogena vajrasattvatvam dpnuydt 'By the use of the Five Nectars he will attain
Vajrasattva-hood'; 16.7ab: avasyam eva ddtavyam vinmutrddyam visesatah 'One
must especially offer [to the Mandala] such substances as faeces and urine'; 17.47:
vinmutrasukraraktdndm jugupsdm naiva kdrayet | bhaksayed vidhind nityam idam
guhyam trivajrajam 'He must not feel disgust at faeces, urine, semen, and blood.
He must regularly consume [them] according to the rite. [For] this is secret of the
three Vajras [of body, speech, and mind]'; 18.67c-68b: simhavad vicaren mantri nir-
visahkena cetasd | ndkdryam vidyate hy atra ndbhaksyam vidyate tathd 'He should
wander [fearlessly] like a lion, with a mind free of inhibition. For him there is
nothing that he may not do, nothing that he may not eat'. On advaitdcdrdhlnih-
sahkdcdrah and the use of such substances, the Five Nectars (pahcdmrtam), in the
rites of the Sakta Saivas see Sanderson 2005c, pp. 110-113, fn. 63; and, e.g., Vi-
malaprabodha, Kdlikulakramdrcana, f. 65r3— v4: atha nityanaimittikakdmydrcane
kuladravyaganam likhyate \ paldndum lasunam grhjam lambusam lavatarkasam |
vdmdpuspam puspabandham astau dravydni kaulike \\ sivdmbu surd raktamadyam
mahdtailam ca sidhukam | kundagolodbhavam sukram peydny astau kuldgame
|| matsyam mdmsam mahdgottham sthalajdkdsanirajam | mahdmdmsam mrgam
caiva bhaksydny astau kulakrame || mdtahgi kajjalT saundl kandukl carminl
dhvajd | chippi vesyd susambaddhd grdhyaitdh kdlikdkule || nihsahkdcdramdrgena
pujanam ca bhaved yadi \ taddsau sidhyate *devi (em. devi Cod.) tair *bhuktvd
bhdvitd yadi (conj. : bhuktam bhdvitam yadi Cod.) || tatpdnasparsandhdrdt
pdsacchedakarT smrtd | *gopitam (conj. : gopitais Cod.) tan mayd purvam ad-
vaitdcdrasobhanam . Cf. in the Mantranaya, e.g., the Sarvadevasamdgamatantra
(lost in Sanskrit, apart from citations, and not translated into Tibetan) quoted
in the Tattvasiddhi of Santaraksita, A f 96v3-6, B f. 39vll-13 (Tib. f 30r5-7):
*nirvikalpena bhdvena (em. [Tib. mam par mi rtog sems kyis ni] : nirvisahkena
bhdvena AB) sarvakarmdni sarvadd | *dcaren (conj. : dcdran B : dcdra A [Tib.
spyod pa]) nirvisahkena tapasdm *uttamottamam (em. [Tib. mchog gi mchog]
: uttamamstapah B : uttamdtapa A) || *visaydn sevamdnasya (em. [Tib. yul
mams *bsten (corr. : bston Cod.) par gyur pa na] : visaydhgavimdnasya AB)
nirvikalpena cetasd | *kutsddhikam na va cet tat (tentative conj. [cf. Tib. smod
par gyur pas mi gnod pa] : kutsddhikam na va cetas B : kutsddhikandceta A)
tat tapo *duratikramam (corr. : duratikramah AB) || yas tu sarvdni karmdni
*prajhayd (em. [Tib. shes rab kyis] : prajhdyd B : prajhdydyd A) viniyojayet |
*sd ca sunyapade yojyd (em. [Tib. de yang stong pa'i gnas su sbyar] : sarvdh
siinyapade yojya B : sarvasunyapade yojya A) *tapo (em. [Tib. dka' thub] : tathd
AB) hy esa mahdtmandm || *prajndsamkrdntirupena (B [Tib. shes rab pho ba ngos
pos ni] : prajhdsamkrdtirupana A) nirvikalpena cetasd \ *nihsahkdcdrasamcdras
(em. [Tib. dgos pa med par kun spyod] : nihsahkdndrasancdrahs AB) *tapas
tesdm (B [Tib. de'i dka' thub yin] : tapatapatesdm A) mahdtmandm. A version
of this passage is contained in the Vajraddka, f. 3v2-4 (1.57c-62b): sopdya<m>
sarvakarmdni nirvisahkas cared yadd || 1.58 nirvikalpena bhdvena vratdndm ut-
tamotta*mam (em. : mah Cod.) | nirvikalpena bhdvena sarvakarmdni sarvadd
|| 1.59 dcare<n> nirvisahkena tat tesdm *uttamam tapah (conj. : uttamdttatah
Cod.) | visayan * sevamdnasya (em. : sevyamdnayo Cod.) nirvisahkena cetasd
|| 1.60 *kesondukdnubhdvena (em. : kesondukasvabhdvena Cod.) tat *tapo (em.
: tayo Cod.) duratikra*mam (corr. : mah Cod.) | yas tu sarvdni karmdni
prajhayd viniyojayet || 1.61 sd ca sunyapade yojya tapo hy etat mahdtmandm ||
prajhd* samkrdntarupdndm (conj. : samkdsarupdni Cod.) nirvikalpena cetasd || 1.62
nihsahkdcdra*samcdras (corr. : samcdrahs Cod.) tapas tesdm *mahdtmandm (corr.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
That Tantric Buddhists possessed the specialized knowledge of the Saiva
Mantramarga that would enable them to draw at will on the Saiva Tantras in
this period is placed beyond doubt by an early exegetical work in the tradition
of the Guhyasamaja. For this, the Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, written in all
probability in the eighth century 332 assumes that any initiate in the practice of
this Tantra is not only familiar with the Saiva scriptures but is able to enact
their rituals by assuming the role of a Saiva Guru, implying thereby that such
initiates were typically converts from the Mantramarga with experience both of
its texts and of its practices. For it tells the adept of this tradition that in or-
der to acquire the female consort required for his post-initiatory observance he
should enter the home of a family of untouchables who are observant devotees
of Siva, reveal to them one of the Saiddhantika scriptures — the text specifically
mentions the Kdlottara and the Nisvasa — give them Mandala initiation [follow-
ing this scripture], and then return to them the daksina that they will give him,
taking a girl from them in its place: 333
He should wander in other lands, in which he is known nowhere. With firm re-
solve the Sadhaka should enter among untouchables who are devotees of Siva
: mahdtmanah Cod.).
332 Portions of the Guhyasiddhi have been quoted in the Carydmeldpakapradipa
of Aryadeva: Carydmeldpakapradipa, pip. 71—72 (imam evdrtham dyotayann aha
sriguhyasiddhau:) = Guhyasiddhi 3.71-81, 17.38; p. 77 = 6.2-3; and p. 97 = 6.45-
49. TOMABECHI (2008, p. 175) has shown that Aryadeva's work is likely to have
been written in the early years of the ninth century.
333 Guhyasiddhi 8.8c-16b: paryated *anyadesesu (conj. [cf. 8.2cd: pravisya
cdnyadesesu] : divyadesesu Ed. [Tib. bzang po'i yul du 'khyam par bya]) yatra na
jhdyate kvacit || 9 pravisya * canty ajdtindm madhye (em. [Tib. mthar skyes nang
du 'jug par bya]: canty ajddlndm madhye Ed.) ye tripurdntake | bhaktd jdnanti
naivdnyam daivatam paramdrthatah || 10 *siddhdntabhdvitd nityam (em. [Tib.
rtag tu rang gi grub mtha' bsgom (*svasiddhdntabhdvakd nityam)] :siddhyante
bhdvitd nityam Ed.) sndnadev arcane ratdh \ kimcidaksaramdrgena *prasaktdh
(conj. \prasakte Ed.) sdstradarsane || 11 evam pravisya tanmadhye sddhako
drdhaniscayah | canddlaganarupena bhdvayan bodhim uttamdm || 12 *darsayec
ca tatas tesdm dharmam siddhdntapurvakam (em. [cf. Tib. chos dang grub
mtha' sngon 'gro ba | de nas de la ston par byed] :darsayec ca tatas tesdm
dharmasiddhdntapurvakam Ed.) | kdlottarddi* samsiddham (em. : samsuddham
Ed.) no cen nihsvdsasambhavam || 13 pdtayitum ca visvdse sarvdms tarns
tantracoditdn | krtvd caivdtmanah sisydn dlksdmandalapurvakam || 14 tato yat
samcitam dravyam tair dattam gurupujane \ tat tesdm arpayitvd tu purvam vit-
tena samyutam \\ 15 grhitvd kanyakdm tesdm cdruvaktrdm sulocandm \ tarn
krtvd mantrasadbhdvdbhijndm samayasammatdm \\ 16 cared vidydvratam dhimdn
buddhatvakrtaniscayah. I have emended antyajddindm to antyajdtindm with the
support of the Tibetan because the -ddi- is inapposite: in 8.7 the Sadhaka is
told to enter the home of an untouchable (antyajdlayah); and in 8.1 he is told
that it is an untouchable girl (antyajd) that he is to acquire. I take dharmam
siddhdntapurvakam in 8.12c to mean 'dharmam preceded by [the wordl siddhdnta-
', i.e. siddhdntadharmam, an example of a not uncommon style of periphrasis.
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and recognize no other deity as absolute, who are inspired by the Siddhanta, al-
ways attached to [the rituals of] bathing and deity-worship, and dedicated to the
doctrines of its scriptures through some slight degree of literacy. After entering
among them in the guise of an untouchable votary (canddlaganah), he should,
while cultivating insight into the highest wisdom, instruct them in the religion of
the Siddhanta established in such scriptures as the Kdlottara, or the Nisvdsaf 34
and in order to win their trust he should take as his disciples all those who are
enjoined by the Tantra after [initiating them before] the Initiation Mandala [of
Siva]. Then he should give back to them all the goods and money that they will
previously have gathered and given him as their offering to their Guru and take
[instead] a girl of theirs with a beautiful face and eyes. After acquainting her
with the essence of the Mantras and making her adhere to the rules of an initiate
that wise one should practice the Vidya observance [with her], after resolving to
become a Buddha. 335
This is indeed troubling evidence for those who may be reluctant to accept that
Buddhists would have had the familiarity with Tantric Saivism that my thesis
of the development of the Mantranaya presupposes.
The Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara: Heruka and his Yoginis,
Kapalika iconography, the Ganamandala, and the beginning of Saiva-Buddhist
intertextuality
With the Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara, another product of
this century, 336 we see the beginning of the final phase of saktization. It is still
rooted in the liturgical tradition of the Yogatantras, 337 as can be seen in the
334 Literally "that which has arisen from the outbreath (nihsvdsah/nisvdsah) [of Siva]".
Both forms of the name of this scripture, Nisvdsa and Nihsvdsa, are attested.
335 Padmavajra is elaborating on Guhyasamdja 16.93: sodasdbdikdm grhya
sarvdlahkdrabhusitdm \ cdruvaktrdm visdldksim prdpya vidydvratam caret 'He
should take a girl of sixteen with a beautiful face and wide eyes, adorned with every
ornament, and practice the Vidya observance with her'.
336 It was translated into Tibetan towards the end of the eighth century or early in
the ninth, and Amoghavajra (705-774) names it and provides a brief summary of
its teachings in his Jin-gang-ding-jing yu-jia shi-ba-hui zhi-gui, Jap. Kongd-chd-
gyd yuga juhatte shiiki (T 869) Key Points of the Eighteen Assemblies of the Yoga
of the Vajrasekharasutra; see TOMABECHI 2007, p. 905. He composed this work in
Chinese at some time between 746 and and his death in 774, but we can be sure
that the text existed in some form, perhaps in an early stage of its development, by
c. 740, since his knowledge of it must have been gained between 741 and 746, when
he was in Ceylon and perhaps India gathering the Tantric literature whose analysis
and translation into Chinese occupied the rest of his life.
337 It is referred to by Aryadeva as a Mahayogatantra in his Carydmeldpakapradlpa,
p. 82: adhund prapahcatdcaryd srTsarvabuddhasamdgamayogaddkinijdlasamvara-
mahdyogatantrdd avatdryate. This term serves to distinguish it from the Yo-
gatantras, namely the Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha and its satellites and to
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
group it with the Guhyasamaja and related texts, though which of the Yo-
gatantras in the broad sense qualified to be considered Mahayogatantras might
be the subject of divergence of opinion. Dlparikarasrljnana defines this class
(rnal 'byor chen po'i rgyud) as comprising the Guhyasamaja and its explana-
tory Tantras (vyakhyatantrani), which he lists as the Guhyendutilaka, the
Krsnayamari, the Paramddya, the Sarvadevasamagama, the Sarvarahasya, the
Vinayamoghafsiddhi], the Vajrajnanasamuccaya, the Vairocanamaydjala, the
Laghukhasama , the Advaya[samata]vijay a, and the Vajrasekhara (Byang chub lam
gyi sgron ma dka' 'grel, p. 286: de la rnal 'byor chen po'i rgyud ni dpal gsang ba
'dus par bshad rgyud dang bcas pa dang zla gsang thig le dang gshin rje'i gshed
nag po dang mchog dang po dang lha thams cad 'dus pa dang thams cad gsang ba
dang 'dul ba don yod pa dang ye shes rdo kun las btus pa dang mam par snang
mdzad sgyu 'phrul dang nam mkha' dang mnyam pa chung ngu dang gnyis medpa
mam par rgyal ba'i rgyud dang rdo rje gtsug tor rgyud la sogs pa rgyud sde stong
phrag bcu gnyis te rgyas par by as na grangs pa med do.) An alternative terminology
distinguishes these more esoteric Yogatantras as Yogottaratantras, perhaps origi-
nally in the meaning 'Supplementary Tantras (uttaratantrani) of the Yoga [class]',
and refers to the Yogimtantras as Yoganiruttaratantras, giving the ascending series
Kriyatantra, Caryatantra, Yogatantra, Yogottaratantra, and Yoginiruttaratantra;
see, e.g., Ramapala, Sekanirdesapanjika, introducing verse 1, describing his teacher
Maitreyanatha (Advayavajra) as an unsurpassed master of all of these: iha maha-
panditavadhutasrimaitreyanathah kriyacaryayogayogottarayoganiruttaratantresv
anuttaraguruh; Ratnakarasanti, Muktavali, p. 223, on Hevajra 2.8.10: sarvam
iti pancavidham: kriydcaryayoga*yogottarayoganiruttarabhedena (yogottara corr.
[=Cod., f. 45v6] : yogantara Ed.); Kanha, Yogaratnamala, p. 156 (on Heva-
jra 2.8.10): sarvamantranayam iti pancavidham kriyacaryayogayogottarayoga-
niruttarabhedena; Advayavajra, Gudhapada, f. 6r6— 7: vajram pancajnanatmakam
| iha pancajhanasabdena kriyacaryayogayogottarayoga*niruttarani (em. : nirut-
taras ca Cod.) tantrany ucyante. I have seen no occurrence in any Indian source
of the term *Anuttarayoga, commonly encountered in secondary sources. It is ev-
idently an incorrect modern translation into Sanskrit of the ambiguous Tibetan
rendering of Yoganiruttara (rnal 'byor bla na med). Early authors attest a less
developed hierarchy. Vilasavajra, an author of the eighth century (Tribe 1994,
pp. 9-23) and the Guru of Buddhajnanapada according to Gzhon nu dpal (Blue
Annals, p. 367), says that he writes his Namamantrarthavalokini after study-
ing the Paramitanaya and the Kriya-, Carya-, and Yogatantras (A f. lvl-2: yo-
gacaryakriyatantram tatha paramitanayam . . . vilokya), but the last evidently in-
cludes texts such as the Guhyasamaja, Vajrabhairava, and Sarvabuddhasamayoga,
since he quotes these and other related works. *Buddhaguhya (rNam par snang
mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud chen po'i 'grel, ff. 64v7-65r6)
speaks of Kriyatantras, which emphasize external ritual practice (phyi'i spyod,
bahyacarya), giving as examples the Susiddhikara and the Vidyadharapitaka, and
Yogatantras, which emphasize internal meditation (nanggi sbyor, adhyatmayogah),
giving the example of the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, and says that the Maha-
vairocanabhisambodhi, later classified as a Caryatantra, is a Yogatantra in as much
as it emphasizes the practice of Method and Wisdom (thabs dang shes rab gtsor
gyur sbyor ba'i rgyud), but may also be referred to as a Kriyatantra or as an Ub-
hayatantra (by a ba'i rgyud dam gnyis ka'i rgyud), that is to say, as a Tantra of both
(ubhaya-) classes, because it also teaches external practice for the benefit of those
whose commitment is to this. In a parallel treatment in his Pindartha commentary
on the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi he gives the Vajrapanyabhiseka among exam-
ples of Kriyatantras (see the translation in Hodge 2003, p. 449). This too was later
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The Saiva Age
use of that tradition's system of the four types of Mudra (Mahamudra, Samaya-
mudra, Dharmamudra, and Karmamudra) in Sadhana texts based on this
Tantra, such as the Vajrajvalodaya of Anandagarbha and the Herukasddhana
of Kalyanagarbha. 338 But it initiates a new direction that would be followed
in the next and final phase of the Mantranaya's development, that of the
Yoginitantras. 339
considered to be a Caryatantra. The terms Kriyatantra and Yogatantra are seman-
tically coherent, as Buddhaguhya indicates. But the choice of the term Caryatantra
('Observance Tantra') for the intermediate class is puzzling. It is conceivable that it
was adopted artificially under the influence of the classification of the subject mat-
ter of the Tantras of the Saiva Mantramarga into kriyd, caryd, yogah, and jhdnam
or vidyd, perhaps with the notion that the fourth corresponds to the Paramitanaya.
1 As far as I am aware, only one other Sadhana text of this Heruka has sur-
vived in Sanskrit. This is the anonymous Herukasddhana of Sddhanamdld 241.
Anandagarbha's, which appears not to have been translated into Tibetan, is much
the most detailed of the three. Apart from these works the only other evidence
of this cult in surviving Sanskrit sources of which I am aware is in the eclectic
Yogimtantra Samputodbhava, which in f. 80v5-81v2, in its eighth Kalpa, the Sar-
vakriydsamudayakalpardja, includes the Mantras of this Heruka and his retinue
of goddesses. There is also a chapter in the Abhidhdnottara of the Cakrasamvara
corpus (B ff. 121v5-129vl: Patala 22) which teaches a hybrid pantheon in which the
goddesses of this Heruka's retinue have been incorporated into that of Heruka and
Vajravarahi, the former taking on the appearance of the Heruka of the Sarvabud-
dhasamdyoga, being four-faced and eight-armed. This poverty of surviving sources
in Sanskrit is probably due to the eclipse of this Tantra after the propagation of the
later Yoginitantras, both in India and in Tibet. A striking indication of this eclipse
is the fact that its Mandala was not included by Abhayakaragupta in his Vajrdvali
and Nispannayogdvali in the first quarter of the eleventh century. For the position
that the four Mudras are the distinctive fundamentals of the Sadhana system of the
Yogatantras see, e.g., Mkhas Grub rje's rGyud spyi, pp. 228-248.
' It was accordingly classified in the Kanjur (T5h. 366-367) among the Yoginitantras
(Toh. 360-441). Likewise, Mkhas grub rje (1385-1438) in his rGyud spyi, p.
266: bde mchog kye rdor dus 'khor sgyu thod gdan *bzhi (em. : gsum Ed.)
phyag chen thig le sangs rgyas mnyam sbyor sogs ma rgyud yin no 'The Mother
Tantras [=Yogimtantras] are such as the Samvara, the Hevajra, the Kdlacakra,
the [Mahd]mdyd, the [Buddha]kapdla, the Catuspitha, the Mahdmudrdtilaka, and
the [Sarva]buddhasamdyoga' '. This recognition of the [proto-]Yogimtantric char-
acter of the text is not only Tibetan. It appears in the thirteenth chapter of the
Ddkinivajrapanjara, where it is referred to in abbreviated form as the *Sarvabud-
dha- (Sangs rgyas kun) in a list of Yoginitantras that also includes the Vajraddka,
Hevajra, Guhyakosa, Vajrdmrta, and Cakrasamvara: rdo rje mkha' 'gro phan rgyud
dang | *kye yi rdo rje (T : kye yi rdo rje dkyU 'khor D) sangs rgyas kun | gsang mdzod
rdo rje bdud rtsi 'byung ba dang | 'khor lo sdompa gur *gyi (T : dang D) 'byung gnas
ni | rnal 'byor ma *rgyud ni (T : rgyud drug tu D) rab tu grags (mKha' 'gro ma'i dra
ba'i rdo rje gur rgyud, D f. 104v4-5; T p. 369, 11. 5-6), and in Dlpankarasrljiiana's
commentary on his Byang chub lam gyi sgron ma'i dka' 'grel, where he refers to
the texts of this class under their alternative title as Yoganiruttaratantras (rnal
'byor bla na med pa'i rgyud), p. 286: rnal 'byor bla na medpa'i rgyud ni dpal nam
mkha' dang mnyam pa 'bum pa chen po 'khor lo sdom pa dang rdo rje mkha' 'gro
dang rdo rje gdan bzhi pa dang ma ha ma yd dang sangs rgyas mnyam sbyor
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
First, it introduces or brings to the fore the cult of the deity Heruka 340 with
an iconography inspired by that of the Bhairavas of the Vidyapitha with their
accoutrements and attributes of the cremation-ground dwelling Kapalika Saiva
ascetic. According to the visualization given by Anandagarbha he has four faces
and eight arms, emerging as the transformation of a dark blue flaming Vajra, it-
self a transformation of a dark blue syllable HRIH. The central face is fierce (rau-
dang sangs rgyas thod pa dang dgyes pa'i rdo rje bum phrag Inga pa la sogs pa
rgyud sde stong phrag bcu gnyis bzhugs te rgyas par bya ba na grangs med do
'The Yoganiruttaratantra, endless in its full extent, contains 12,000 [texts], princi-
pally the Mahakhasama in 100,000 [verses], the Cakrasamvara, the Vajradaka, the
VajracatuspTtha, the Mahamaya, the [Sarva]buddhasamayoga, the Buddhakapala,
and the Hevajra in 500,000 verses'. On the term Yoganiruttara see here p. 146.
340 The origin of the name Heruka has not been explained in a satisfactory manner.
Indigenous sources explain it only through artificial semantic analyses based on su-
perficial similarities of sound. Thus, for example, we are told that 'He-' means 'un-
caused' (hetuvarjitam), '-ru-' means 'formless' (rupanirmuktam), and '-ka' means
'free of sense-faculties' (karanojjhitam); see Vajrapani, Laghutantratika, p. 45;
Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 5; and the Tibetans, who translated names
if they were meaningful, either left this untranslated or substituted a description,
namely Khrag 'thung 'Blood-drinker', a meaning that cannot be justified etymolog-
ically. So if the name was meaningful at some stage it appears that that meaning
has left no trace in the surviving literature. The alternative is that it never was
meaningful in this sense, being created on the basis of the unmeaning syllables
HE HE RU RU KAM that are found in Cakrasamvara's Mulamantra: OH SRIVAJRA
HE HE RU RU KAM HUM HUM PHAT DAKINIJALASAMVARAM SVAHA. Against this it
may be said that the name appears without this doubling of the first two syllables in
the earlier Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, section 794, in the Mantra for the tam-
ing of all the Mother goddesses: OH HERUKA VAJRASAMAYA SARVADUSTASAMAYA-
mudraprabhanjaka hum phat. It might seem more reasonable, then, to see he
he ru RU kam as a spell-element built from an already existing name. However, it
is striking that we find almost the same element in the Vidya of Parapara, an im-
portant Mantra of the Sakta Saiva Vidyapitha: OM aghore hrih paramaghore
HUM GHORARUPE HAH GHORAMUKHI BHlMA BHlSANE VAMA PIBA HE RU RU RA
RA PHAT HUM HAH PHAT (Siddhayogesvarimata 3.23-39; Malinivijayottara 3.42-
50; Tantraloka 30.20-24b; Trisirobhairava quoted by Jayaratha thereon) and its
variant taught in Kubjikamata 18.4-24: AIM AGHORE HRIM HSAH PARAMAGHORE
HUM GHORARUPE HSAUM GHORAMUKHI BHIMA BHISANE VAMA VAMA PIBA HAH
he ru RU RA RA hrim hum phat. We may note that the name Hevajra, that of the
second major deity of the Yogimtantras, appears to have a similar origin, having
been conjured up from the Mantra he vajra pasya 'O Vajra[-being], behold!' that
is uttered when the blindfold is removed from the candidate's eyes in the presence
of the Mandala (Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, section 230). The origin of the
Herukas Rigi-arali and Vajra-arali of the Tantras of those names are also, it seems,
the apparently unmeaning syllables of Mantras: OM ARALI RIGI PHEM PHEM PHEM
BHYO SVAHA (Ri gi a ra li'i rgyud f. 187v2) and OM VAJRA ARALI PHAT . . . PHEM
PHEM SVAHA (Ri gi a ra li'i rgyud f. 187v7). The name of the Heruka Buddhakapala
of the Tantra of that name has likewise been conjured out of the feminine vocative
BUDDHAKAPALINI/-KAPALINI that appears in its Mantras; see (Nispannayogavali,
p. 31: OM BUDDHAKAPALINI AH HI HAI HUM PHAT; Buddhakapalatantra, e.g., f.
5rl: OM BUDDHAKAPALINI MATA 2 AH PHAT SVAHA puspanivedanamantrah).
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The Saiva Age
dram), those to its right and left expressive of delusion and erotic passion, and
that behind open-mouthed to devour. In his two uppermost hands he holds the
freshly flayed skin of Bhairava over his back, in the two below a bow and arrows,
in the third right in descent he shakes a blazing three-pronged Vajra, and in
the fourth a skull-bowl filled with human blood (mahdraktam). In the third left
in descent he brandishes the Kapalika's skull-staff (khatvdngah), topped with a
three-pronged Vajra and adorned with bells, and in the fourth a skull-bowl filled
with human flesh (mahdmdmsam). Or he may be single-faced and two-armed,
with a five-pronged Vajra in his right hand raised above his shoulder and a skull-
bowl full of human flesh in his left, with a skull-staff resting on his left shoulder
and held in the crook of his left arm. He wears a chaplet of skulls with the Bud-
dha [Aksobhya] adorning his flaming hair, is surrounded by an aureole of flames,
poses with his left foot on the ground and his right leg raised so that the sole of
the foot touches his left thigh, has dancing eye-brows knitted in anger, and has
round, fire-red darting eyes. 341 Kalyanagarbha, who teaches only the two-armed
form, adds that he stands on a sun disc, which rests on a lotus, which rests in
turn on a prostrate corpse, is smeared with ashes, wears a garland of freshly sev-
ered human heads, and has protruding fangs. 342 An anonymous Sadhana text,
341 Vajrajvdlodayd, f. 172vl— 2: bhagavato mahdmudrdm baddhvd purata dkdsadese
HRl<B.>kdrena visvapadmam nispddya tasyopari pancasucikam jvdldvajram HUM
A iti | tato vajrdhamkdra<m> bhdvayet JVALAVAJRO 'HAM HUM iti \ tatas tad
vajram sriherukam dtmdnam bhdvayet SRlHERUKO 'ham HUM iti; f. 173r4-v4:
caturmukham astabhujam | tatra prathamam mukham raudram daksina<m>
dvitiya<m> mukham pramoha*pramodina<m> (?) prsthatas trtiyakam bhaksana-
mukham vdmatas caturtham srhgdramukham | etac ca mukha*catustayam (conj.
Isaacson : catustaya Cod.) gltyd nirdistam iti | dvdbhydm bhujdbhydm vdyu-
patadhdranayogena sdrdrabhairavacarmadharam dvdbhydm dhanurbdnadharam
daksinatrtiyena trisucikajvdldvajrolldlanatatparam caturthena mahdraktapari-
purnakapdladharam vdmatrtiye ghantdsahitavajrakhatvdhgadharam caturthena
mahdmdmsaparipurnakapdla :, 'dharam (corr. : dharah Cod.) | dvibhujam eka-
mukham <vd> vdmaskandhe yajhopavitayogena ghantdvajrakhatvdhgasobhitam
daksinakarena *tripatdkdyuktena (corr. : tripatdka Cod.) pancasucijvdld-
vajradharam | vdmakarena mahdmdmsaparipurnakapdladharam | kapdlamdld-
makutabuddhacuddmani<m> uccavisvapadmdsanopavistam vdmapddam bhumi-
stham krtvd daksinapdda<m> sattvaparyahkayogena nyasya | tatpddatalam
vdmorund samputlkaranayogendvasthdpya nllajvaldvajramayam raktajvdldbha-
mandalam mahdpralayakdlograsmasdndgnisadrsam diptakesam raudrddirasa-
samyogavicitramukhavibhramam | savibhramabhrubhrkuti<m> pradiptdloka-
nartitadrstim iti.
342 Kalyanagarbha, Herukasddhana , pp. 470-471: adhomukhasya savasyopari visva-
padmam tasyopari suryamandalam tanmadhye samupavistam *ekdsyordhvabhuja-
dvayam (ekdsyo em. : ekasyo Ed.) iti vacandd ardhaparyahkinam bhasmoddhu-
lita<m> raktaprabhdmdlinam pingalordhvakesam . . . sdrdranaramastakamdld-
krtasragddmam damstrdkardlavadanam caladvartuldkdraraktdksam savibhrama-
bhrukutinam.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
which also teaches only that form, gives the further details that he is dark blue
and clad in a garment of human skin, that his garland of heads is strung together
with human entrails, that he is adorned with human bones, that is to say with
the Kapalika ornaments known as the Mudras, and that his posture indicates
that he is dancing. 343
He is surrounded in the style of the Vidyapitha by twenty Vajradakinis: 344
first, in the innermost circuit the eight Gauri, Cauri, Pramoha, Vetali, PukkasI,
Candali, Ghasmari, and Herukasamnivesa/Herukasamnibha; then the four
Capadharini, Khatvarigadharini, Cakradharini, and Citrapatakadharini; then
four offering goddesses: Puspa, Dhupa, Aloka, and Gandha; and finally four
theriocephalic gate-guardians: Turarigama, Vajramukhi, Vajramamaki, and
Bhasmapralayavetali. 345
343 Sddhanamdld no. 241: tato hrihkdranispannam nilakardlavajram hrihkdrddhi-
sthitavaratake dhydtvd tatsarvaparinatam nilam naracarmabhrtam kapdlamdld-
ksobhyasiraskamjvaladurdhvapihgalakesam raktavartuldksamantrasamgrathita-
mundamdldvalambitam nardsthiracitdbharanam dvibhujaikamukham damstrd-
kardlavadanam . . . visvapadmasurye vdmapddam tasyaivorau daksinacaranam
vinyasya nrtyam kurvantam herukaviram bhdvayet. There are numerous two-
armed Herukas conforming to the iconographical prescriptions of these Sadhanas
in surviving statuary from eastern India, though this connection with the tradition
of the Sarvabuddhasamayoga has not been recognized to my knowledge. For ex-
amples from Ratnagiri in Orissa, Nalanda, Sarnath, and Subhapur (in the Comilla
District of Bengal) see Linrothe 1999, pp. 249-260, figs. 175-183, and 185-188,
and Huntington 1984, fig. 215. The last lacks the prostrate corpse.
344 Vajrajvalodaya, f. 176r7-vl: sarvam srlgauryddivajradakiniganam nirmdya
prajvalitordhvakesam | raktajvdldbhamandalam mahdpralayakdlograsmasdndgni-
sadrsam samkruddham ekakapdlaikabuddhamakutam svacihnadharam yathd-
sthdne nivesayet.
345 The Sarvabuddhasamayoga deploys a complex six-family Mandala consisting of six
sub-Mandalas. The six families, each with its own sub-Mandala, are those Va-
jrasattva, Vairocana, Heruka, Padmanartesvara, Vajrasurya, and Paramasva. Two
Mandala traditions deploy this pantheon. In one Vajrasattva occupies the cen-
tral sub-Mandala and in the other Heruka. In each sub-Mandala one of these
six occupies the centre surrounded by twenty goddesses. The last twelve god-
desses are the same in each, namely Susira, Nrtya/Vina, Vitata, and Ghana,
followed by Puspa, Dhupa, Aloka, Gandha, Turaga, Vajramukhi, Vajramamaki,
and Bhasmapralayavetali, the first eight of these being, as their names reveal,
offering-goddesses (pujddevyah), personifications of offerings, and the last four gate-
guardians, except that in the retinue of Heruka Capadharini, Khatvangadharini,
Cakradharini, and Citrapatakadharini are substituted for the first four, the mu-
sical offering-goddesses Susira, Nrtya/Vina, Vitata, and Ghana. The first eight
of the twenty, then, stand apart as the retinue specific to each Tathagata. The
eight from Gauri to Herukasamnivesa formed the basis of the retinue of Hevajra
in the Yogimtantra Hevajra, with the difference that there we see Sabari rather
than Pramoha and Dombi rather than Herukasamnivesa. See TOMABECHI 2007,
pp. 919-921 for a complete tabulation of all one hundred and twenty-six deities and
their seed-syllables as given in the Sarvabuddhasamayoga and the Paramddya.
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The Saiva Age
According to Anandagarbha 346 Gauri (E) is fair in colour and tranquil-faced.
See also Tanaka 1996, pp. 199-201 for the Tibetan names of all the goddesses (and
their Mantras) in the six sub-Mandalas, and the listings of the names and posi-
tions of all the deities of the two six-family Mandalas in Bsod NAMS RGYA MTSHO
1991, pp. 106-113. In the Heruka-centred Mandala set out there each of the six
deities presiding over the sub-Mandalas has a consort: Heruka + Isvari, Vairocana
+ Locana, Vajrasurya + Mamaki, Padmanartesvara + Pandaravasim, Paramasva
+ Tara, and Vajradhara + Samvari; and the total of deities is 135, since two extra
goddesses, counted as one, Citrapadma and Citravajra, are found in front of the cen-
tral deity in the sub-Mandala of Paramasva, and there are eight additional deities
in the outer enclosure, since there too there are four offering goddesses within its
corners and four animal-headed goddesses guarding its gateways. Theriocephalic
female gate-guardians are a common feature in the Mandalas of the Yogimtantras;
see, e.g., Samvarodaya 13.29c-31b; Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapahjikd, p. 113 on
2.8 (Kakasya, Ulukasya, Svanasya, Sukarasya); Nispannayogdvali, p. 15 (Hayasya,
Sukarasya, Svanasya, and Simhasya in the 17-deity Mandala of Hevajra) and p.
90 (Sukarasya, Grdhrasya, Jambukasya, Garudasya, Vyaghrasya, Ulukasya in the
Mandala of Kalacakra).
3 Vajrajvdlodayd, ff 177r4-178r5: purvadigbhdge gauri gauravarnd sdntadrstih
saumyamukhd yaugapadyenaiva tiksnadhanurbdnapariksepdn mahdprasahya-
sira<s>catustayam patayanti pratydlidhasthdnasthd \ daksine cauri raktavarna
raudradrstimukhd yajnopavitayogena vdmaskandhe khatvdhgam dhdrayanti \
kapdlamalamukuta vdmakrodhamustina hrdy ahkusadharini daksinakarena
madhyahgulyastaracakram utkarsayanti vdmapddena trailokyam lahghayanti \
pastime pramoha adivarahamukhd pramohadrstih krsnd caturbhuja madya-
purnakapdlavdmakara daksinakare vajradhdrini punar vdmadaksinabhujdbhyam
*parasparabaddhabhydm (corr. : paramparabaddhabhyam Cod.) prthivy-
uddharanam kurvanty alidhapaddvasthitd \ uttare vetali sitavarnam harsa-
mukhim mrtakotthapanadrstih daksinakarena candrakantabhakapalacasakena-
mrtavaridharam patayantim vamakarena vajrapatakakaradharinim yathesta-
padavasthita | tasminn eva mandale purva*kosthe (corr. : kostha Cod.) pukkasi
visvavarna nrtyamukhl nrtyadrstih daksinavajramustina pancasucikajvalavajra-
dharini \ vamakarena marutoddhutakalpavrksalatadharini kapalamaladipari-
purnasadhumasmasanamadhye nrtyaprayogena | daksine candall nilavarna vata-
mandalikarudha savibhramamukhi urdhvadrstih daksinamustina vajrasulam
dddya \ vayupatadharanena vatamandalikapramoksena sddhya*prandmadayo
patanti (?) | pastime ghasmari krsna*varna (corr. varnnam Cod.) mrta-
carvanamukhi bhaksanadrstih \ vamakarena vajrajvalagnikundadharini \ daksine
vajramustina khadgam dddya pratydlidhapaddvasthitd | uttare sriherukarupa-
samnibha vamakarena *casakakapdlam (casaka conj. : capdsa Cod.) dddya
vdmaskandhe khatvdhgam dhdrayanti | daksine tripatdkdkarena pahcasucika-
jvdldvajram dddya srlherukapade dvibhujaikamukhl samsthitd | dgneyakosthake
*capadharini (em. : copodhdrini Cod.) | raktavarna vamakarena vajra-
dhanur dddya daksinena *vajracdpasahitena (corr. : vajracdpdsahitena Cod.)
dhanu<r>gundkarsanayogena *vajrabdndn (corr. : vajrabdrnndn Cod.) ksipanti |
nairrte khatvangadharini kapdlamdldmakutabuddhacuddmani<r> *drsitdra (?)
bhasmasubhravarnd daksinakarena ca pahcasutikajvdldvajra<m> pdnyd ksipanti
| *vdyavye (em. : vdyave krodhamustind tarjanitatpard | vdyavye Cod.) *cakra-
dharini (corr. : cakradhdri Cod.) gauraharitavarnd vdmakrodhamustina tar-
janatatpard *daksinakaramadhyamdhgulydstdracakram (daksina corr. : daksine
Cod.) utkarsayanti | aisdne kone citrapatakadharini \ *kanakopalavarnd (varnd
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Eight-armed, she cuts off each of the four heads of Brahma by simultaneously fir-
ing arrows from four bows. 347 Cauri (S) is red and fierce-faced. Wearing a chap-
let of skulls she holds a goad-hook (ankusah) in her left hand at her heart with
a skull-staff in the crook of her left arm resting on her left shoulder, and holds
aloft an eight-spoked discuss with the middle finger of her right, pressing down
on the three worlds with her left foot. Pramoha (W) is black and four-armed, with
the face of Visnu's boar-incarnation (ddivardhamukhd). In her first left hand she
holds a skull -bowl full of wine and in her first right a Vajra. With her other two
hands she imitates the boar-incarnation by raising up the earth. 348 Vetali (N)
is white and joyful-faced. With her right hand she pours a stream of the nec-
tar of immortality from a transparent skull-cup and with her left shows the Va-
jra banner gesture. Pukkasi [E] is multi-coloured (visvavarna) and dancing in a
smoky cremation -ground full of strings of skulls and the like. In her right fist she
clasps a five-pronged Vajra and in her left a wind-buffetted tendril from the wish-
granting tree of paradise (kalpavrksalata). Candali (S) is dark blue and riding
on a whirlwind (vatamandalika). In her right fist she clenches a Vajra-topped
trident and with her left releases a whirlwind against her victims. Ghasmari
(W) is black and eating a corpse. In her left hand she holds a blazing sacrificial
fire-vessel (agnikunda-) and with her right grasps a sword. Herukasamnibha
(N), black like Heruka, holds a skull-cup [to her heart] in her left hand, with
a skull-staff resting on her left shoulder, and a five-pronged Vajra in her right.
Capadharini (SE) is red and, holding a Vajra bow with her left hand, fires Vajra
arrows by drawing back the bowstring with her right. Khatvarigadharini (SW)
is ash-white, wearing a chaplet of skulls and the Buddha on her crown, [holding
a skull-staff with her left hand and] hurling a blazing fire-pronged Vajra from
conj. : varnna Cod.) daksinakarena *samghata(l)vicitravarnapataka<m> dhara-
yantl.
347 That Gauri is eight-armed is not stated by Anandagarbha, but she could not draw
four bows simultaneously with fewer and no other hands are mentioned. His
mahdprasahya- is obscure but evidently it denotes Brahma since the victim is
said here to have four heads (mahaprasahyasira<s>catustayam patayanti). Both
these inferences are supported by Humkaravajra, who is explicit in both regards
in his *Herukasadhana (f. 203v2): zhal bzhi phyag brgyad brjid pa'i stongs \g.yon
brkyang gar gyis bzhugs mdzad cing \ mda' bzhi dus gcig bkang ba la | tshangs pa'i
tngo bzhi spyangs pa ste.
348 According to Humkaravajra's Herukasadhana she has two heads, that of a boar
above and a red head below. Moreover, he has her raise with her two lower hands
a wheel ('khor lo) rather than the earth (f. 203v3-5): *pra (em. : bra Cod.) mo dbu
gnyis gong ma phag | 'og ma dmar po phyag bzhi pa | g.yas kyi dang pos rdo rje
rtse gsum bsnams | g.yon gyi dang pos kham phor 'chang | 'og gnyis khu tshur so sor
'chang | 'khor lo 'dzin cing bteg pa'i tshul | g.yas brkyang stabs bcas nub phyogs su |
rmongs tshul mdog dmar pa dma la.
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The Saiva Age
her right. Cakradharini (NW) is light green and holds aloft an eight-spoked dis-
cuss on the middle finger of her right hand and threatens [the wicked] with her
left fist clenched in anger. Citrapatakadharini (NE) is golden in colour, holding a
multi-coloured banner in her right hand. The four offering-goddesses stand in the
directions holding the offerings that they personify: flowers, an incense-burner,
a lamp, and fragrant powder; and the four goddesses Turangama, Vajramukhi,
Vajramamakl/Aloka, and Bhasmapralayavetali stand in the four gates of the en-
closure to subjugate all hostile deities (krodhakulam), with the heads of a horse,
a boar, a crow, and a dog, and holding a hook, noose, chain, and bell. 349
All this, barring a few specifically Buddhist details such as the Vajras
and the offering-goddesses, who are already in the Mantranaya of the Sarva-
349
Anandagarbha's text is corrupt and lacunose at this point in the manuscript,
omitting Vajramukhi and Vajramamaki (f. 178r5-v2): vamamustina Ighatylava-
sthita Itrylamanjalina puspadhupadlpagandhacihnadharinyah asvagojasabhuti-
samjnitasattapujadevi | purvadvaramadhye turangasana vamahastena padma-
hastd hayagrlvaharitam asvamukham dharayanti | daksine kare sthitena vajra-
hkusena sarvakrodhakulam akarsayantl | pastime *dvara alokam (corr. : dvare
lokan Cod.) candrasuryamandala?ru?payuktavajra*sphotanena (conj. : sphotanam
Cod.) sarvam krodhakulam bandhayanti \ uttaradvare bhasmapralayavetali
*vamakarena (corr. : namahkarena Cod.) kapalamadhye visvavajrastham buddha-
bimbam dharayet | daksine kare sthitavajraghantavadanayogena sarvakrodha-
kulam vasikurvanty *avasthita (corr. : avasthitah Cod.) | *sarvas caitah (corr.
: sarvvancetah Cod.) pratyalidhasthanastha<h> sadrstibhavarasanvita<h>. A
complete but less detailed description of these eight can be seen in the Tibetan
translation of the *Herukasadhana of Humkaravajra, f. 204r4-7. The identity of
the non-human heads of the gate-guardians is mentioned in these sources only in
the case of the horse-headed Turangama, by Anandagarbha and Humkaravajra (f.
204r5: shar sgo rta mgrin 'phang mtho dkar | g.yas na rta gdong g.yon Icags kyu),
and Vajramukhi, by Humkaravajra, who names this goddess Phag gdong 'Boar-
face' (Sukarasya) (f. 204r6: Ihor sgor phag gdong snon mo ste \ g.yas pas mche ba
g.yon zhags 'dziri). According to the tradition of the Ngor Mandalas, the last two
door-guardians, Snang ba ma (Aloka) and Thai byed ma (*BhasmakarinI [?]), are
crow-faced and dog-faced (Bsod nams rgya mtsho 1991, p. 110). These animal-
headed guardians exemplify the character of this Tantra as transitional between
the Yogatantras and the Yogimtantras. The animal-headedness is shared with
such goddesses in the latter (see here p. 151), but the hand-attributes, namely the
hook, noose, chain, and bell, are those of Vajrankusa, Vajrapasa, Vajrasphota, and
Vajravesa, the male gate-guardians of the Vajradhatumandala of the Yogatantra
Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha; see Tanaka 1996, p. 271. For those attributes see
the *Herukasadhana of Humkaravajra, f. 204r5-7 (I have restored the Mantras,
which invoke the goddesses as the personifications of these attributes, to their cor-
rect Sanskrit form): OM *vajrankuse (corr. ba dzra am ku sha Cod.) JAH | shar
sgo rta mgrin 'phang mtho dkar | g.yas na rta gdong g.yon Icags kyu | OM VAJRAPASE
HUM | Ihor sgor phag gdong sngon mo ste | g.yas pas mche ba g.yon zhags 'dzin | OM
*VAJRASRNKHALE (corr. : BA DZRA SHRI KHA LE Cod.) VAM | nub sgor snang byed
dmar mo ni \ phyag gnyis nyi zla Icags sgrog 'dzin \ OM *VAJRAGHANTE (corr. : BA
DZRA GA NTE Cod.) HOH | byang sgor thai byed mdog Ijang du \ sang rgyas gzugs
dang dril bu'o.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tathdgattattvasamgraha, 350 is very much in the Kapalika style of the pantheons
of Bhairavas and Yoginis taught in the Vidyapitha.
Second, it is in the tradition of this Tantra that we see for the first time
in the Mantranaya the practice of the ganamandalam, orgiastic worship in an
assembly consisting of a male and a group of female adepts (yoginiganah) person-
ifying the deities of the cult, with a jargon of special terms and gestures known
as chommah to be used in these gatherings. 351 Both these features, collective
orgiastic worship of deity-personifying Yoginis and the use of chommah, are dis-
tinctive features of the Sakta Saivism of the Vidyapitha. 352
Third, we see here for the first time the complete abandoning of the mixed
prose and verse style inherited from the Mahayanasutras in favour of one that
resembles that of the Saiva scriptures in consisting entirely of Anustubh verse,
barring the Mantras, and also the disappearance of the traditional Buddhist
preamble maintained up to the time of the Guhyasamdja, stating the occasion
and place of the revelation. 353 It is also in the Sarvakalpasamuccaya, the supple-
350 See Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha , sections 165-176 and Nispannayogavali, p. 46
(Vajradhupa, Vajrapuspa, Vajraloka, and Vajragandha).
351 The practice and the jargon are outlined by Aryadeva in his Caryameldpakapradipa
(pp. 82-60: prapancatdcaryd) on the authority of this Tantra. The Yoginis per-
sonified here are the twenty that form the retinue of Vajrasattva, the eight pecu-
liar to him being Samvari, Ahosukha, Pradipa, Sisya, Buddhabodhi, Dharmacakra,
Trailokya, and Kamalata.
352 On such worship in Sakta Saivism see Sanderson 2007a, pp. 280-288; and
Tantrdloka 28.6-111, 372c-385b (yoginimelakah, cakraydgah, murtiydgah), 29.66,
78-79. On chommah in these traditions see Sanderson 2007a, p. 333 and the
sources quoted in footnotes 331-332.
353 The Tantra begins as follows (Sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba,
f. 151rl-2: 1.1 sems dpa' sangs rgyas kun gyi dngos | rdo rje sems dpa' bde
ba'i mchog | gsang ba mchog gi dgyes pa na | thams cad bdag nyid rtag tu
gzhugs | 1.2 'di ni rang byung bcos Idan 'das \ gcig bu rob tu phye ba'i lha \
sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam sbyor ba | mkha' 'gro sgyu ma bde ba'i mchog
(*rahasye parame ramye sarvatmani sada sthitah | sarvabuddhamayah sattvo
vajrasattvah param sukham || asau svayambhur bhagavan eka evddhidaivatah ||
sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvarah). Cf. the opening verses of the Laghu-
samvaratantra, which are evidently based on it: athdto rahasyam vaksye samasan
na tu vistarat | sriherukasamyogam sarvakamarthasadhakam || 1.2 uttarad api
cottaram dakinijalasamvaram | rahasye parame ramye sarvatmani sada sthitah
|| 1.3 sarvadakinimayah sattvo vajrasattvah param sukham | asau hi svayambhur
bhagavan viro dakinijalasamvaram; and the following citation of the Sarvabuddha-
samayoga in the Caryamelapakapradipa, p. 82: athatah sampravaksyami sarvato
visvam uttamam | sarvabuddhasamayogam dakinijalasamvaram || rahasye parame
ramye sarvatmani sada sthitah | sarvabuddhamayah sriman vajrasattvodayah
sukhah. These verses are 1-2 of the Kalpa 6 of the Tantra, corresponding to
the Tibetan, except that that seems to have had a different version of the first
line (f. 159v4-5): de nas gzhan yang thams cad du | rnam pa sna tshogs
mchog 'byung pa'i \ sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam sbyor ba \ mkha' 'gro sgyu ma'i
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The Saiva Age
mentary continuation {uttaratantra) of this Tantra, that we see the first appear-
ance in the Mantranaya of the Saiva method of teaching Mantras in encrypted
form to be decoded by the process known as mantroddharah; and with this devel-
opment we encounter what is at present our earliest evidence of Buddhist-Saiva
intertextuality A passage of seven verses that prescribes for this purpose the
drawing of a square with forty-nine cells (kosthakani) and the arranging of the
forty-nine letters within them corresponds very closely to one in the Vlndsikha
of the vdmasrotah division of the Vidyapitha. 354
The intensification of the Sakta Saiva character of the Mantranaya evident
in this text is accompanied by the implication that this Buddhism is one that
has conquered that tradition, transforming it, as it were, from within into a ve-
hicle for Buddhist salvation. For while wrathful Heruka appears with Kapalika
iconography and a retinue of Yoginis he wears, as we have seen, the freshly flayed
skin of Bhairava over his shoulders; and the Tantra relates that its deity in its
commitment to purify all beings has violently overpowered Siva, Visnu, Brahma,
and Kamadeva, and taken their consorts by force for his own enjoyment. 355 This
bde mchog bshad. For the requirement of a preamble see, e.g., the Mahayanist
Dharmasamgitisutra as quoted by Abhayakaragupta in the introduction to his Ab-
hayapaddhati f. lv: kdladesadesakaparsatsdmagri hi desandyd niddnam endm
vind desandnupapatteh. tatra evam mayeti mama dharmah samgatavyah . . .ity
uktam bhagavatd dharmasamgitisutre 'For the preamble that establishes the au-
thenticity of a teaching [comprises] all these factors together, namely the time,
place, teacher, and congregation, because without all those it cannot be [accepted
as] a teaching. To this effect the Buddha has declared in the Dharmasamgitisutra
. ..: 'My teachings must be recited with [the opening phrase] "Thus I [. . . ]"'; and the
unnamed Sutra quoted by Tathagataraksita on Yoginisamcdra 1.1: mayi parinirvrte
bhiksava evam mayetyddikayd mama dharmah samgatavyah 'O monks, after I have
been completely extinguished [by death] you should recite my teachings with the
words "Thus I . . . "'.
354 This nas b een demonstrated in Tomabechi 2007. The Saiva passage is Vlndsikha
52-58. That in the Sarvakalpasamuccaya is DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ka, ff. 194v6-
195r5.
355 Samvaratantra (= Sarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvara) quoted in
Jndnasiddhi 18.10—18 (pp. 153—154): sarvasuddhyadhimoksena prasahya
balavdn adhah | pardkramakramandt tu sarvalokdn pramardayet || anyam
tu dustaraudrogram sattvadhdtum anekadhd || pdpais corair avaskandhaih
sarvam eva visodhayet | cchalena mdyayd caiva prasahya balavdn adhah ||
pancdyudhanibandhais ca sarvalokdn jayet tadd | vijitya sakaldm siddhim jagat
sthdvarajahgamam \\ vicitravinayopdyaih svapardn anupdlayet | kdminindm
bhavet kdmo raudrdndm raudram uttamam || saumydndm paramam saumyam
hathdndm hathavikramah | paramesarn samdkramya prasahya balavdn adhah
|| umadevim samdkrsya copabhogair bhunakty asau \ narayanam samdkramya
prasahya balavdn adhah \\ rupinim. tu samdkrsya upabhogair bhunakty asau
| prajapatim. samdkramya prasahya balavdn adhah \ prasantadevim dsddya
upabhogair bhunakty asau \\ kamadevam. samdkramya prasahya balavdn adhah
| ratiprltidhrtyaisvaryam samdkramya bhunakty asau. This corresponds to
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
rhetoric of appropriation is reflected in the Mantras of Heruka's Vajradakinls.
Pramoha, who, as we have seen, has the boar face of Visnu's Adivaraha incarna-
tion, is invoked as Vajranarayani, Cauri as Vajracandesvari, and Ghasmari as
Vajramahesvari. 356 Furthermore, Heruka's first appearance in the Mantranaya
is in the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, where his name appears in a Mantra
for the drawing of all the [Saiva] Mother-goddesses into Buddhism, and it is
that, with the insertion of a single seed syllable, that is adopted as the Mantra
of Heruka in the Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara. 351 The very title of
the work alludes to this assimilation, since it is evidently calqued on those of two
Vidyapitha scriptures, the Sarvavlrasamayoga and the Yoginijalasamvara. 358
The Yoginitantras and the Full Appropriation of Vidyapitha Saivism
With the Yoginitantras proper we reach the final stage of this process of
absorption. The principal among the numerous Tantras of this class are the
Sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba, ff. 158v7-159r5, except that there
Paramenia's (Siva's) consort is Bhimadevi (f. 159r2: lha mo bhi mo) and Narayana's
(Visnu's) is Rukmini (f. 159r3: ru gmi ni).
356 Vajrajvalodayd, f. 176v: HUM VAJRANARAYANI JHIR iti (em. : jhirati
Cod.) pramohdm); ibid.: HUM VAJRACANDESVARI KHATVANGI MAHAVAJRI
kapalamalamukute rulu rulu hum iti caurim. Ghasmari is invoked as Va-
jramahesvari in the Mantras of the retinue of Heruka given in the Samputodbhava
: OM VAJRAMAHESVARI HAM HAM HAM HAM HAH RULU RULU RULU BHYO HUM
PHAT BHAKSAYA SARVADUSTAN NIRMATHA HRDAYAM HUM PHAT SVAHA I ghas-
marydh (f. 81r4-5). There are other examples of the assimilative transformation
of non-Buddhist deities in the Mantranaya, marked, as here, by the prefixing of
Vajra- to their names. For example, the deities Vajranarayana, [Vajra]candisvara,
and Vajrapadmodbhava, that is to say, Vajrayanist transformations of Visnu, Rudra,
and Brahma, together with their consorts Vajrasri, Vajragauri, and Vajratara, join
Akasagarbha and Khavajrini to form the retinue of Vajrasattva in the central sec-
tion of the abridged Mandala (bsdus pa'i dkyil 'khor) of the Yogatantra Paramadya,
a text with which the Sarvabuddhasamayoga is closely related (TOMABECHI 2007,
p. 904; Tanaka 1996, pp. 271-272). That disposition of deities is taught (see
Tanaka 1996, pp. 96-103) in the mChog dang po'i sngags kyi Hog pa'i dum
bu (*Sriparamadyamantrakalpakhanda) (T5h. 488) according to Anandagarbha's
mChog dang po'i rgya cher bshad pa (*Paramadyatika) (Toh. 2512).
357 Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha, section 794: OM HERUKA VAJRASAMAYA SARVA-
dustasamayamudraprabhanjaka hum phat sarvamatrnam iti; Vajra-
jvalodayd: OM herukavajrasamaya h<r>Ih sarvadustasamayamudra-
PRABHANJAKA HUM PHAT iti svamantrena sriherukam nivesayet.
358 On these two scriptures see Sanderson 2007a, pp. 234-236 and footnotes 21-
22. The expression sarvavTrasamdyogaddkinTjdlasamvaram, without the substi-
tution of -buddha- for -vira-, is seen in the Yoginitantras of Cakrasamvara. It ap-
pears in, e.g., Laghusamvaratantra, f. 8r3 (8.1) and f. 24v4 (31.13ef): tatah sarva-
virasamdyogaddkinljdlasamvaram; and Samvarodaya 3.6cd: sarvavirasamdyoga-
ddkinijdlasatsukham . In the last satsukham is a tacit semantic analysis of
samvarah.
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Laghusamvara also called Cakrasamvara and Herukdbhidhdna, the Heva-
jra, the Catuspltha, the Vajramrta, the Buddhakapdla, the Mahdmdyd, the
Rigydrali, the Vajrarali, the Candamahdrosana, and the Kdlacakra. Two of
these texts, the Laghusamvara of the Heruka called Samvara (bDe mchog)
or Cakrasamvara ('Khor lo sdom pa) and the Hevajra of the Heruka Hevajra
held centre-stage, a position they later shared with the Kdlacakra when that
text was propagated towards the end of the tenth century, during the reign
of Mahipala I (r. c. 977-1027). 359 Their importance is reflected in the shere
quantity of commentaries and other texts devoted to the cult of their deities.
The Tenjur contains translations of eleven commentaries on the Hevajra and of
eleven on the Laghusamvara, and of about two hundred other explanatory texts
related to each. Moreover, they both have a number of satellite Tantras, the
Hevajra five and the Laghusamvara over fifty 360 The principal among these,
those that received commentaries, are for the Hevajra the Ddkinlvajrapanjara
and the Mahdmudratilaka, and for the Laghusamvara the Herukdbhyudaya,
the Vajraddka, the Abhidhdnottara, the Yoginlsamcdra, the Samvarodaya, and
the Ddkdrnava. Another major Yoginitantra, the Samputodbhava, on which
we have an important commentary, the Amndyamahjarl, by Abhayakaragupta
( 1064-1 125), 361 pertains to both cycles. 362
359 On the date of the Kalacakra see here p. 96. On the establishing of this tradition
and how it positioned itself in relation to earlier Tantric Buddhism see Sferra
2005.
360 This i ar g e total includes thirty-four texts (Toh. 383-416), forming a supplementary
collection, as it were, of related opera minora, totalling less than 150 pages. Though
included in the Kanjur they were classified by Bu ston (1290-1364) as supplemen-
tary Tantras whose authenticity, that is to say, Indian origin, was the subject of
debate (rgyud yang dag yin min rtsod pa can). The great majority are claimed in
their colophons to be translations prepared in the early eleventh century by 'Brog
mi in collaboration with the Indian Gayadhara. On the lay Tantric Gayadhara, who
is mentioned in no Indian source known to me but is the subject of many partly
conflicting accounts in Tibet, where he was venerated as the Indian source of the
Lam 'bras tradition and for having collaborated with several Tibetan translators,
see Stearns 2001, pp. 47-55. It is, however, certain that not all these opera mi-
nora are of suspect authenticity. For my pupil Peter-Daniel Szanto has recently
identified the original Sanskrit of one, the Anavilatantra, among the contents of a
palm-leaf codex preserved in the Tokyo University Library (verbal communication).
361 These dates rest on Tibetan tradition and are consistent with the regnal years of
Ramapala that Abhayakaragupta has reported as the dates of composition at the
end of some of his works; see here p. 126.
362 Thus, though counted as an explanatory Tantra of the Cakrasamvara cycle, it is
grouped with the Hevajra and Ddkinlvajrapanjara as one of the three Tantras of
Hevajra (kye rdo rje rgyud gsum) in the Sa skya tradition of Tibet, and classified
because of its mixed character as the Hevajra's shared explanatory Tantra (thun
mong bshad rgyud); see STEARNS 2001, pp. 173-174, n. 28. It also extends into
the territories of the Catuspltha, the Guhyasamdja, the Vajrabhairava, and, as we
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Chronology and Provenance. All of these Tantras were translated into
Tibetan, and all but the latest among them, the Dakarnava and the Samvarodya,
were translated in the first half of the eleventh century, during the opening phase
of the later diffusion (phyi dar) of Indian Buddhism to Tibet, as were commen-
taries on the majority of those named here, most written during the course of the
tenth and early eleventh centuries.
The oldest is probably the commentary of Jayabhadra on the Laghusamvara.
In chapter 38 of his Rgya gar chos 'byung Taranatha includes five of our com-
mentators on the Laghusamvara, Jayabhadra, Bhavabhadra/Bhavabhatta,
Bhavyakirti, Durjayacandra, and Tathagataraksita, among ten persons whom
he holds to have occupied the office of chief Vajracarya at Vikramasila in rapid
unbroken succession, and claims that Jayabhadra was the first of the ten
(Jayabhadra, Sridhara, Bhavabhadra (/Bhavabhatta), Bhavyakirti, Lilavajra,
Durjayacandra, Krsnasamayavajra, Tathagataraksita, Bodhibhadra, and
Kamalaraksita). Moreover, comparison of the commentaries, the Tibetan trans-
lation, and the only manuscript of the Laghusamvara accessible to me at present
reveals two versions of the text. Taranatha's claim that Jayabhadra preceded all
the other commentators in his list gains support from the fact that Jayabhadra
knew what is evidently the earlier of these two versions. It extends only to 50.19,
ending with a passage on fire-sacrifices that may be performed if one wishes to
subject another to one's will (vasyahomah). In the second, attested by all the
other commentators except Bhavyakirti, 363 by the Tibetan translation, and by
have seen, the Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara.
363 In Bhavyakirti's Cakrasamvarapanjika the text of the Laghusamvara ends exactly
where it does in Jayabhadra's. It is therefore likely to belong like Jayabhadra's to
the earliest phase of the exegesis of this Tantra. Jayabhadra's appears to be the
older of the two. In 41.8 Bhavyakirti attests with the later witnesses the interpo-
lation (see here p. 199) *oddiyanajalandharapulliramalayadisu (bDe mchog nyung
ngu, f. 239r2: au dya na \ dza la ndha ra dang pu li ra ma la ya sogs), since he
comments here (f. 36v6): o dya na du ni 'od Idan ma'o | dza la ndha rar ni gtum
mig ma'o | pu III ra ma la ya la sogs, whereas Jayabhadra says that Pulliramalaya
has not been mentioned but must nonetheless be understood to be intended (p. 137:
pulliramalayo na nirdistah sarvaplthanam pradhanatvad upadesad vavaseyah). It
seems probable, then, that Bhavyakirti follows the reading of a subsequent redac-
tion in which this 'omission' had been rectified.
At the beginning of the translation the name of Bhavyakirti's commentary is said
to be Suramanojna in Sanskrit and dpa' bo'i yid du 'ong in Tibetan, i.e. 'pleasing to
heroes'. But the Sanskrit titles given in the Tenjur are so often inaccurate that we
can conclude that they do not reach us from the Sanskrit works themselves but are
reconstructions from the Tibetan added by the compilers of the Tenjur. The Sanskrit
rendered by dPa' bo'i yid du 'ong can now only be guessed, but its first element was
surely Vira- rather than Sura-. The Mahavyutpatti, composed to guide Tibetan
translators and no doubt the dictionary used by the compilers of the Tenjur, gives
dpa' bo to render both vira- and sura-, both meaning 'hero'; but though the two
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The Saiva Age
the manuscript, the fiftieth chapter has eight verses after the last of the shorter
text (50.20-27), followed by a fifty-first chapter of twenty-two verses. It is clear
that the longer text is the later. For the alternative, that the shorter text arose
after the longer by excision of the final thirty verses, is inconceivable, since these
have the effect of greatly increasing the plausibility of the whole as a Buddhist
work and were no doubt added because it was felt, quite rightly, that 1.1 to
50.19 were inadequate in this regard. The only element of Mahayana Buddhist
doctrine contained in the text up to 50.19 comprises a section of four verses
(10.1-4) stating that success in the pursuit of Siddhis depends on the Sadhaka's
identifying with the three Buddha bodies (Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and
Nirmanakaya), all other Buddhist elements being little more than a handful of
occurrences of the terms Buddha, Tathagata, and Bodhisattva, and the names
of Vajrayanist deities.
Now Taranatha claims that his ten successive Tantric Acaryas of
Vikramasila held their positions after the time of Buddhajnanapada and
Diparikarabhadra, whom he places in the reign of Dharmapala (c. 775-812);
and he reports that each did so for twelve years, implying thereby a form of
limited tenure. Thereafter, he says, came the six "Door-keepers". Among them
was Ratnakarasanti, who taught the Tibetan translator 'Brog mi Sakya ye
shes (993-1077?) 364 and the Indian Diparikarasrijfiana 365 (982-1054), and was
a slightly older contemporary of Jnanasrimitra, who was active c. 980-1030.
From this it would be a simple matter to determine the approximate date of
Jayabhadra, the first of the ten, by counting the years from either end, were it
not that Taranatha makes the collective tenure of the ten Acaryas 120 years,
whereas the interval between Diparikarabhadra and Ratnakarasanti is almost
two centuries. We might be inclined to count back from Ratnakarasanti rather
than forward from Diparikarabhadra, thinking that a historian's information
is likely to be more reliable the closer he approaches his own time. In that
case, if we trust Taranatha and set the end of the tenure of Kamalaraksita in
1000, as the immediate predecessor of the Door-keepers, we will conclude that
Jayabhadra's tenure ran from 880-892.
words are synonymous in ordinary usage, in the tradition of the Yogimtantras it
is the former alone that is used in the special sense evidently intended here, that
is, as a technical term for the Tantric practitioner. As for the second element, the
same dictionary gives manojna- for yid du 'ong. But the result is unattractive by
the standards of Sanskrit authors, who generally sought, like authors everywhere,
to give their works titles that appealed to the ear. Viramanoramd is synonymous
and meets this requirement.
364 Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 84.
365 Blue Annals, p. 380.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
However, this chronology can be reconciled with other reports only at a great
stretch, at least for the later teachers in Taranatha's succession. Thus Dmar
ston, pupil of Sa skya Pandita Kun dga' rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) tells us 366
that Durjayacandra, who by this calculation would have held office from 940
to 952, was the teacher of Prajnendraruci, also called Viravajra, and that the
latter taught 'Brog mi Sakya ye shes. Now 'Brog mi is said to have let Tibet
for Nepal and India when Rin chen bzang po was nearly fifty years old, 367 that
is to say around 1007 if Rin chen bzang po was born in 958, as his biography
claims and Gzhon nu dpal accepts, 368 and then, after spending one year in Nepal
with Santibhadra 369 and eight at Vikramasila with Ratnakarasanti, 370 to have
studied with Prajnendraruci for three or four, 371 that is to say, therefore, c. 1016-
1020. If we accept that Durjayacandra is unlikely to have held such a senior
post as that of the head Vajracarya of Vikramasila in his youth and assume for
the sake of argument that he was fifty-five when he began his tenure, then if
that tenure began in 940, he would have to have been continuing to teach long
after his retirement at sixty-seven in 952, and Prajnendraruci, if we take 945 as
the latest plausible year of his birth, would have been about seventy when he
accepted 'Brog mi as his pupil.
This scenario is not impossible; but neither is it comfortable. Nor is it helped
by the fact that Prajnendraruci is reported to have collaborated with 'Brog mi
on translations of texts pertaining to Hevajra and his consort Nairatmya. This
evidence is given in the colophons at the end of these translations 372 and should
be considered more reliable than that of hagiographical biographies.
Even more difficult to reconcile is the report in the Chos 'byung of Pad ma
dkar po (1527-1592) that Durjayacandra taught the Mantranaya at Vikramasila
to the translator Rin chen bzang po. 373 For Rin chen bzang po is said to have left
for India in 975, at the age of seventeen, and to have gone to Vikramasila only
after a period of some seven years of education in Kashmir, therefore around
982. At that time Durjayacandra would have been nearly a hundred if we hold
to the assumption that he began his tenure in 940 when he was fifty-five years
of age. 374 It is probable, then, that while we are indeed closer to the truth if
366 Zhib mo rdo rje, pp. 86-88.
367 Blue Annals, p. 205, 11. 26-31.
368 Blue Annals, p. 68, 11. 3-6.
369 Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 84, 11. 6-10; Blue Annals, p. 205, 11. 32-35.
370 Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 86, 1. 10; Blue Annals, p. 206, 11. 18-19.
371 Blue Annals, p. 206, 11. 32-33 (three years); Zhib mo rdo rje, p. 88, 11. 7-8 (four
years).
372 Toh. 1185, 1236, 1251, 1310.
373 Tucci 1988, p. 35.
374 Tucci 1988, pp. 3-4.
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The Saiva Age
we calculate back from the Door-keepers than forward from Buddhajnana and
Diparikarabhadra, Taranatha has placed the later teachers from Durjayacandra
onwards too early.
This suspicion gains further support from what we know of the life of
Tathagataraksita. If Taranatha's report were accurate, provided that we
calculate backwards from the six Door-keepers, then he would have held office
at Vikramasila c. 964-976. But we learn from the colophon of the Tibetan
translation of his commentary on the Yoginlsamcara that he translated the work
himself with the help of the Tibetan Ba ri Lo tsa ba Rin chen grags. This places
his activity well into the second half of the eleventh century. For Ba ri Rin chen
grags is said by Gzhon nu dpal to have been born in 1040. 375
If Durjayacandra, as now seems probable, was active towards the end of
the tenth century, and if Taranatha is correct that there were no intervals
between the tenures of his predecessors Jayabhadra, Sridhara, Bhavabhadra,
Bhavyakirti, and Lilavajra, then we shall not be far from the truth if we assign
them all these commentators on the Laghusamvara to the tenth century.
Beyond the terminus provided by this tentative dating of the earliest
commentators we have no clear knowledge of the date of these Tantras. It
has been claimed by DAVIDSON that the Laghusamvara was already in ex-
istence in the eighth century since Vilasavajra cites it several times in his
commentary on the Manjusrinamasamgiti? 16 and this view has recently been
repeated by GRAY. 377 The latter recognized that most of the former's claimed
citations are actually not of the Laghusamvaratantra but of the Sarvabud-
dhasamayogadakinijalasamvara, which Vilasavajra cites as the Samvaratantra,
using the common abbreviation of this unwieldy title. But he argues that the
date is established nonetheless by two places in the same commentary in
which Vilasavajra cites a Cakrasamvaratantra or Cakrasamvaratantra. This
GRAY takes to be the Laghusamvara under its commonly used alias. Both
citations occur in a section of the commentary in which, explaining epithets
found in the Manjusrinamasamgiti, Vilasavajra follows each with iti and the
name of a Tantra in the locative, indicating that the epithet is also found
in that source. The first citation, GRAY claims, is of Laghusamvara 2.16c (f.
2v6: hasticarmavaruddham ca 'and [his back] covered with the hide of an
elephant'), and the second of 48.12a (f. 35r6: kahkala mahakahkala). In fact
the first passage does not cite Laghusamvara 2.16c, the text quoted being
gajacarmapatardradhrk 'wearing as his upper garment the moist hide of an
375 Blue Annals, p. 211.
376 Davidson 1981, pp. 7-8.
377 Gray 2007, pp. 12-14.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
elephant', to which Laghusamvara 2.16c corresponds only in sense and then
not exactly. 378 As for the second citation, 379 the word kahkalah does appear in
the Laghusamvara, as the name of one of the twenty-four Vira consorts of the
twenty-four Dakinis, 380 but as a single word its presence is not enough to es-
tablish the identity of Vilasavajra's Cakrasamvara with the Laghusamvara. On
the other hand, the fact that the first epithet attributed to the Cakrasamvara
does not occur in the Laghusamvara is not sufficient to prove the opposing
thesis, that Vilasavajra was referring to another work. For it is conceivable
that he was citing the text not for the exact wording of Manjusrinamasamgiti
69d (gajacarmapatardradhrk) but only for an expression close to it in meaning.
But if this is true it establishes, of course, only that Vilasavajra may have been
referring to Laghusamvara 2.16c, not that he was. To continue to hold to the
position that Vilasavajra must have been referring to our Laghusamvara in
spite of these considerations, one has to put one's trust in the fact that the
Laghusamvara is also known as the Cakrasamvara and the fact that no other
work of this name is cited (unless it be here). One must also remain free of
the suspicion that there might have been another, earlier work with this title
among the numerous Tantras known in the eighth century that have failed to
survive either in Sanskrit or in Tibetan translation. 381 One must also overlook
the evidence of the Laghusamvara itself. For that refers to a Cakrasamvara in a
list of its own predecessors. 382 I conclude, therefore, that there is no more than
378 Vilasavajra, Namamantrarthavalokinl A f. 57rl-2, on Manjusrinamasamgiti 69d
(gajacarmapatardradhrk): gajacarmapatardradhrg iti sricakrasamvare | gajasya
carma gajacarma patas casav ardras ca | gajacarmaiva patardrah gajacarmapata-
rdrah | tarn dharayatiti gajacarmapatardradhrk. This error has been pointed out
by Szanto (2008b, p. 217).
379 Vilasavajra, Namamantrarthavalokinl A f. 55v6, on Manjusrinamasamgiti 67cd
(damstrakaralah kahkalo halahalah satananah): kahkala iti sricakrasamvare.
380 Laghusamvara f. 35r4-7 (48.9c-12): vajrasattva vairocana padmanartesvaras
tatha | srivajraherukas caiva akasagarbha hayagrivam eva ca || 10 rat-
navajra mahabala virupaksa bhairavas tatha | vajrabhadra subhadras caiva
<va>jrahumkaram eva ca || 11 mahavira vajrajatilam tu ahkurika va-
jradehaka \ vajraprabha amitabhah suravairino vikatadamstrinam eva ca \\
12 kahkala mahakahkala khandakapalinadi tu caturvimsativiranam sarvam
vyaptam akhilamjagat.
381 Such works cited in Vilasavajra's commentary are the Krodhendutilaka (A f.
57r5), the Guhyakosa (A f. 57vl), the Vajraghanoccaya (B f. 39r6), the Satprajna-
nayasamvara (B f. 40v3), the Sarvatantrasamuccaya (A f. 57r4), and the Va-
jrakiriti (A f. 56v6). Similarly, in the Tattvasiddhi of Santaraksita we find the
Sarvadevasamagama, the Laukikalokottaravajra, and the Vimuktisamudghatana,
and in the Caryamelapakapradipa of Aryadeva the Vajramukhimahayoga and the
Vi nayamoghas idd h i .
382 Laghusamvara 27.23-24a as transmitted in Abhidhanottara, Patala 43, A f.
140rl-2f, B f. 180v3-4: tattvasamgrahe yad uktam ca tathoktam cakrasamvare
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The Saiva Age
a possibility that Vilasavajra knew the Laghusamvara and, therefore, that the
existence of this Tantra in the eighth century remains unproved.
What we can say with confidence is that the Laghusamvara came af-
ter the Paramadya, the Vajrabhairava, the Sarvatathagatasamgraha, the
Guhyasamaja, and the Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara, since it
names these, 383 and tacitly incorporates verses from the last three in its earliest
accessible redaction. 384 These borrowings do not rule out the possibility that the
| guhyatantre samdkhydtam haritantre tathaiva ca || mahdbhairavatantre ca
japavratddisiddhidam \ tad idam dhydnamdtrena mantri sddhayate ksandt. The
reading cakrasamvare (cakrasamvare Cod.) is confirmed by Bhavabhatta in his
commentary on this verse (Cakrasamvarapanjikd, p. 495).
383 Laghusamvara f. 4v2-3 (3.22): abhisikto bhavet tatra sarvvatantraikam ut-
taram | tattvasamgrahe samvare vdpi guhye va vajrabhairave; and f. 23v7
(30.24): vidydrdjacakravarti ayam mantro na bhuyo na bhavisyati \ tattvasamgrahe
paramddye samvare guhye va vajrabhairave. The Samvara here is the Sarva-
buddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvara. The title is commonly so abbreviated; see
also Indrabhuti's comment on the first passage ('Khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kyi
rgyal po bde mchog bsdus pa zhes bya ba'i mam par bshad, f. 38r7): bde
mchog ni sgyu ma bde mchog go 'The Samvara is the Jdlasamvara' . In his
Cakrasamvaravrtti Indrabhuti takes the Guhya here to be the Guhyasamaja or
the GuhyendumanitilakalGuhyendutilaka (Toh. 477) (f. 38r7): gsang ba ni 'dus pa
'am zla gsang thig le'i nor bu'i rgyal po'o. In his Cakrasamvaratikd Devagupta
takes it to be "the Guhyasamaja etc." (f. 80r5): bsdus pa la sogs par. But in his
Cakrasamvarapanjikd Bhavabhatta glosses guhyatantre in 27.23 as guhyakosddau
'in the Guhyakosa etc.'.
384 (1) Laghusamvara (LS) f. Iv5 (1.7c-8b): antargatena manasd kdmasiddhim tu
bhdvayet | svaretobindubhir buddhdn bodhisattvdms ca pujayet < Sarvatathdgata-
tattvasamgraha, section 2651: antargatena manasd kdmasuddhim tu bhdvayan |
svaretobindubhir buddhdn pujayan siddhim dpnuydt, but influenced in the second
line by Guhyasamaja 7.26: svavajram padmasamyuktam dvayendriyaprayogatah |
svaretobindubhir buddhdn vajrasattvdms ca pujayet; (2) bDe mchog nyung ngu, f.
234r5-6 (LS 31.1): de nas sha chen thams cad kyi | jigs byed rdo rje skyes yin bshad
| 'di ni gdug pa thams cad kyi | jigs byed mi bzad par bshad do < Guhyasamaja
5.78: mahdmdmsena sarvesdm ndsanam vajrajam smrtam | eso hi sarvakrurdndm
ndsako ddrunah smrtah; (3) bDe mchog nyung ngu, f. 234v4 (LS 31.12): sa ni
spyan zhes bya bar bshad | chu khams ma ma ki ru brjod \ me ni gos dkar mor
bshad de | rlung ni sgrol mar rab tu brjod < Guhyasamaja 17.51: prthivT locand
khydtd abdhdtur mdmakl smrtd | pdndardkhyd bhavet tejo vdyus tdrd praklrtitd;
(4) LS f. lv (1.1-3) < SarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinTjdlasamvara (SBSDJS) 1.1-2
etc. (see here p. 154); (5) LS f. lv5-6 (1.8c-9b): darsanasparsandbhydm ca sravane
smaranena ca || mucyate sarvapdpais tu evam eva na samsayah < SBSDJS as
quoted in Jndnasiddhi 15.50: darsanasparsandbhydm ca sravanasmaranena ca \
sarvapdpair vimucyante *yujyante (em. : pujyante Ed.) sarvasiddhibhih (= Sangs
rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba f. 152v3 [2.16]); (6) LS ff. Iv7-2rl (l.llc-13b):
madhu raktam sakarpuram raktacandanayojitam | ganamadhye pratisthan tu [+
sarvocchistarasdyanam in the earlier redaction incorporated in the Abhidhdnottara
A f. 146rl— 3 (46.3— 5b)] sarvavajrdhkacihnadhrk \ andmdhgusthavaktrdbhydm
lehayed yogavit sadd || somapdnavad dsvddya siddhim dpnoti sdsvatlm < Sangs
rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba f. 158v4-5 (SBSDJS 6.15—17): dmar
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Laghusamvara was composed in that century, since none of the works is later
than that time. But three considerations suggest a later date. (1) No text of the
Cakrasamvara corpus, or any other Yoginitantra, was translated into Tibetan
during the earlier diffusion of Buddhism (snga dar) that occurred from the
eighth century to the middle of the ninth, during Tibet's imperial period: this
new literature reached the Tibetans only during the later transmission (phyi
dar), that began c. 1000. (2) Among the many surviving stone, metalwork, and
painted Indian images of Samvara none is demonstrably earlier than the tenth
century 385 Finally (3), there is, as we have seen, no evidence of commentatorial
work on the Laghusamvara before c. 900. Of course, none of these facts proves
conclusively that the Laghusamvara was not in existence at an earlier date. But
they do incline one to consider a later date more probable. This is particularly so
in the case of the absence of commentaries. The Laghusamvara is so problematic
text from the Buddhist point of view that it is hard to imagine that it could have
survived for long without the support of learned exegesis.
Whatever its date, the Laghusamvara is likely to be a product of the first
phase of the development of the Yoginitantras, if not the earliest of them all.
This surmise rests on the assumption that Yoginitantras that are less sophis-
ticated in the sense that they show a less developed Mahayana Buddhist theo-
chen dang ni ga bur bcas \ tsa ndan dmar por sbyar ba dag \ tshogs kyi
dbus su bzhag pa ni | ra sa ya na kun slong ba | rang gi lha yo sbyor Idan
pas | srin lag dang ni mthe bo'i rtses | zhi ba'i btung pa bzhin myangs na
| Hag pa yi ni dngos grub thob (*mahdraktam sakarpuram raktacandanayoji-
tam | svddhidaivatayogena sarvocchistarasdyanam | andmdhgusthavaktrdbhydm
<++++++++> | somapdnavad dsvddya siddhim apnoti sdsvatlm); and (7) LS f. 12r6-
7 (13.2): yadyad indriyama.rgatvamya.ydt tat tat svabhavatah | paramdhitayogena
sarvam buddhamayam vahet <SBSDJS as quoted in Carydmeldpakapradipa, p. 90:
yad yad indriyamdrgatvam ydydt tat tat svabhavatah | asamdhitayogena sarvabud-
dhamayam vahet.
385 A Kashmirian Samvara of leaded brass inlaid with copper and silver in the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art from the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection
appears to have been assigned by Pal to c. 725 in his catalogue of the exhibition
'The Arts of Kashmir' (2007, p. 91, fig. 92). However, he has kindly informed me
(personal communication, 1 March, 2008) that this surprisingly early date is not
his own but that of the museum (for which see http://collectionsonline.lacma.org)
recorded on the loan agreement form. The lending museum insisted on this date
and it was substituted for his own without consulting him. He had assigned it to "ca.
9th century". In an earlier publication (1975, p. 173, pis. 64a,b) he had proposed the
tenth. Reedy (1997, p. 162, fig. K62) gives '9th-10th century'. Linrothe (1999, p.
289, fig. 211) has found these dates too early and suggests the late tenth or early
eleventh century. In the absence of a detailed art-historical demonstration of the
date, which I suspect could in any case be no more than tentative given the small
population of comparable pieces, I am inclined in the light of the other historical
evidence to agree with Linrothe.
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The Saiva Age
retical framework are likely to be earlier than those in which the level of the-
oretical assimilation is more advanced. By this criterion the Hevajra must be
placed after the Laghusamvara. This also assumes that the development of the
Mantranaya was not unilinear throughout, since if it were we would have to
place the Laghusamvara before the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi, Sarvatatha-
gatatattvasam.gr aha, Guhyasamaja, and Sarvabuddhasamayoga. It assumes,
then, that the Yoginltantras represent a new phase with its own humble begin-
ning, and that it was only later in this phase that the tradition got up to speed,
as it were, by fully integrating the new world of practice whose entry marks its
commencement by providing it with a thoroughly Buddhist encoding. While it
is possible that this assimilation of the text began long after its first redaction
it seems more probable in the absence of firm evidence to the contrary that if
so problematic a creation were to have remained for long without the benefit of
learned exegesis it would be likely to have disappeared without trace.
As for the provenance of the Laghusamvara, it was certainly eastern India,
the region in which most of the Indian learned exegesis of this Tantric corpus
was produced. The Tantra does not state this explicitly. Claiming the status
of revelation it would have been averse to doing so. Nonetheless, it reveals
its provenance in spite of itself by giving BA in its encoding of some of the
syllables of Mantras where correct Sanskrit requires VA. This is evidently an
effect of the fact that va is pronounced ba in the Indo-Aryan vernaculars of this
region. 386 Thus 5.4 yields BHAGABATE rather than BHAGAVATE: pancamasya
yac caturtham prathamasya trtlyam \ trayovimsas tathaiva ca caturthasya yah
prathamam (f. 5r3-4) 'the fourth of the fifth [class of consonants] (BHA), the
third of the first (GA), the twenty-third (BA), and the first of the fourth (T-)' ; and
30.20-21 yields BHAGABAM rather than BHAGAVAM (for BHAGAVAN): kosthakad
dasamam caiva vilomena tu sadhakah \ kosthaka ekonavimsatimam tatha
trayovimsatikosthakad \ dvitlyakosthasamyuktam binduna urdhvabhusitam (f.
23v4-5) 'The Sadhaka should select the tenth counting backwards from the
compartment [of HA] (BHA), the nineteenth from that [of A] (GA), and the [letter]
from the twenty-third box (B-) together with [the letter in] the second box
adorned above with a dot (AM)'.
Variant readings giving the correct spellings in these cases are found. In 5.4
Jayabhadra and Bhavabhatta read ekonnatrimsa- (sic) and ekonatrimsati 'the
twenty-ninth' (VA) rather than the trayovimsa- 'the twenty-third' (BA) seen in
the Baroda manuscript; and this reading is also found in the Tibetan translation
(de bzhin nyi shu tsa dgu la [- ekonatrimsam tathaiva ca]) and the redaction
386 This is so in Bihari, Maithih, Bengali, Kumauni, Nepali, Assamese, and Oriya.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
of this passage in Patala 54 of the Abhidhdnottara (A f. 166r3: ekonnatrinsam
tathaiva ca). Likewise in 30.21 we find Jayabhadra giving ekonatrimsati- (VA) in
place of the reading trayovimsati (BA) attested by the manuscript, but here the
'incorrect' reading is also supported by the Tibetan translation and the commen-
tary of Bhavabhatta. There can be little doubt that the non-standard readings
giving BA rather than VA are original. For it is not surprising there should have
been attempts to correct an original BA to VA, whereas it would be most unlikely
that any redactor would have made the effort to rewrite a reading that gave VA
in order to yield BA. 387
Also indicative of the east-Indian provenance and development of this cor-
pus are the form chamdoha- in place of samdoha- , 388 and the pervasive promis-
cuity of the forms -samvara- and -samvara- in the names of its deity, in the
title of the primary Tantra, and in the compound in which this form is pre-
ceded by dakinljala- or yoginljala- . I use the forms Samvara and Cakrasamvara.
Laghusamvara and Cakrasamvara here in keeping with the usual Tibetan trans-
lations, namely bDe mchog and 'Khor lo sdom pa; and this accords with se-
mantic analyses of these names and titles in the Sanskrit commentators. Thus
Bhavabhatta explains the second element of the second in the sense 'he who re-
strains' from the the verb samvr-, and construes the whole to mean 'he who by
means of the wheel (cakra-) [of the Dharma] restrains [the minds of living be-
ings from the wrong path] (-samvarahf (*cakrena samvrnotiti cakrasamvarah),
telling us further that the name is extended to the Tantra because this de-
ity is its subject. 389 As for the form Samvara, that too is widely supported.
387 It is not probable that the Laghusamvara was alone among the Yoginitantras in
being of east-Indian origin. We see the same tell-tale B- for v- in 1.4.27-28 of the
Catuspltha, the Mantra syllables VADAVE being encoded there as BADABE. More-
over, it is probable that the Apabhramsa seen in some verses of the Hevajra is of the
eastern variety. This is suggesred by the nom. sg. endings -oho and -aha in kibidaho
in 2.4.6 and hutasanaha in 2.4.67; see Tagare 1987, p. 110-111. An investigation
of the language of the Apabhramsa verses that are found in such Yoginitantras as
the Hevajra, Khasama, Catuspltha, and Dakarnava, in comparison with that of the
Doha collections of Kanha and Saraha, may be expected to shed more light on this
question of provenance.
388 See here p. 180.
389 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjikd, explaining the title with the prefixed honoric
Sri- when it occurs in the final colophon in the words sricakrasamvaranamni raaha-
yoginitantraraje 'in the great king among the Yoginitantras called srlcakrasamvara'
in the final colophon: srih punyajnanasambharah \ cakram dharmacakram | srimac
cakram srlcakram | tena kapathat sattvanam manah samvrnotiti srlcakrasamvarah
sriherukah | tadabhidhayitvat tantram api tathocyate 'The word Sri- 'glory' denotes
the accumulating of [bothl merit and gnosis. The word -cakra- 'wheel' refers to the
wheel of the Dharma. It is prefixed by Sri to express the fact that it [, that is to
say, the teaching of the Buddha,] entails this [provisioning with both merit and
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The Saiva Age
Ratnakarasanti explains it as meaning 'the Highest (varam) Bliss' (sam) when
analysing its occurrence in the neuter in the compound dakinijalasamvaram; 390
and Bhavabhatta when analysing its occurrence in the masculine gender at the
end of the same (dakinijalasamvarah) takes it to mean '[Heruka,] who protects
Bliss (sam vrnotlti samvarah) [by keeping it free of all defects]'. 391 This line of
analysis, which applies a meaning of sam that is well-attested in non-sectarian
lexicography 392 is not the invention of these commentators. They draw on the
authority of the Sarvabuddhasamayoga, which refers to its deity Vajrasattva
as Samvara and explains that name as meaning '[he who has/is the] Highest
Bliss'. 393 That the -samvara form is not only old but also original is established
gnosis]. Heruka is called Sricakrasamvara [here] because he restrains [samvrnotiti
samvarah] by means of this [wheel, in the sense that he restrains] the minds of
living beings from the false path. [This] Tantra has the same name because it is
that which refers to him'.
390 Ratnakarasanti, Mahamayatlka on 23d: samvaram sukhavaram mahasukham
'[sam means 'bliss' and -varam 'best'. So] samvaram means 'the best bliss'
(sukhavaram) [, i.e.] 'the Great Bliss' (mahasukham)'. The same analysis is tacitly
given in such parallel expressions as dakinijalasatsukham in Samvarodaya 3.6d
and 26.10cd; and Vajraddka l.lcd: sarvadakinlmayah sattvo vajraddkah param
sukham; 1.12cd, 1.50,1.71cd: sarvaddkinisamdyogavajraddkah param sukham.
391 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapahjika on 1.2: dakinl sunyata. jalam upayah \jdlena
hi matsyadibandhanasiddhih \ updyena hi klesamlnddir niyamydkimcitkarah kriy-
ate | tabhyam sam sukham avadyebhyo bahiskrtya vrnotlti dakinijalasamvarah
'[The meaning of the name] Dakimjalasamvara [applied to Heruka here] is 'he who
protects (-varah [vrnotlti varah]) bliss (sam) by means of the Dakim and the Net
(jalam)'. The term Dakini [here] means ['Emptiness',] 'the fact that [all things] are
void of [intrinsic reality]' (sunyata); and the term 'Net' refers to the method (upayah)
[, namely the compassion (karuna) that must accompany awareness of that Empti-
ness]. It is called a net [metaphorically]. For by using a net one succeeds in catching
fish and other creatures. [Likewise] by employing the method [that is compassion]
one restrains and so renders incapable of activity the 'fish and other creatures' that
are the afflictions (klesdh)[, namely attachment, hatred and the rest]. He protects
bliss by means of these two[, emptiness and compassion,] in the sense that through
these he protects it from [those] defects'.
392 See, e.g., Hemacandra, Anekdrthasamgraha, Parisistakdnda 21a: sam kalydne
sukhe 'tha; Vardhamana, Ganaratnamahodadhivrtti, p. 39, on 1.15: sam
duhkhopasame; Yaska, Nighantubhdsya, p. 521 (on Rgveda 5.4.5: sam no bhavantu
vdjinah): sukhdh no bhavantu vdjinah.
393 Sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba, f. 154r6-7 (1.10): sham zhes bya ba
bde bar bshad | sangs rgyas kun gyi bde chen yin | sgyu ma thams cad rab sbyor
ba | mchog tu bde bas bde ba'i mchog (sukham sam iti vikhydtam sarvabauddham
mahasukham \ sarvajdlasamdyogah sukhavarena samvarah) 'The word sam means
'bliss', the Great Bliss of all the Buddhas. He is Samvara because of [the fact that
he possesses] the highest degree of [this] bliss'. The Sanskrit of the first half of
this verse is supported by its citation by Vilasavajra while explaining the epithet
mahdsukhah in his Ndmamantrdrthdvalokini, f. 57vl— 2: mahdsukha iti srisamvare
| tatra mahdsukha iti yat tdthdgatam andsravam sukham tan mahdsukha ity u-
cyate \ tatraivoktam sukham sam iti vikhydtam sarvabauddham mahasukham iti.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
by evidence outside the Buddhist corpus. For Yoginljalasamvara is found as the
name of a Bhairava in one of the secondary Kalpas taught in the Sakta Saiva
Picumata, 394 which, as we shall see, was a major unacknowledged source for
the redactor of the Laghusamvara. That the form intended there is -samvara-
rather than -samvara- is certain, because the text provides a semantic analysis
that takes the first syllable to mean bliss (sukham). 395
However, these are not the only views. Jayabhadra, commenting on 1.2 of
the Laghusamvara, takes the same expression to be Dakinijalasamvara, un-
derstanding it to refer to the Laghusamvara itself and explaining it as 'The
Concealment of the Array of Dakinis', deriving the last element of the com-
pound from samvr- 'to envelop'; 396 and while the Tibetans usually render the
The first Pada is also supported by Bhavabhatta, who quotes it without attribu-
tion, when explaining dakinijalasamvaram in Laghusamvara 1.2: sam sukham iti
cakhydtam iti vacanat.
394 Yoginljalasamvara in this text is a form of Bhairava and the term refers by
extension to his Mantra and the associated system of practice (vratam). See
Picumata f. 251r5-vl (56.4c-6b): srnu devi pravaksyami sarvayogiprasadhanam
| yagamantrasamopetam yoginljalasamvaram | yena vijnatamatrena trailokye khe-
caripadam \ asadya kridate mantri kulasiddhisamanvitah 'Listen, O Devi. I shall
teach you about Yoginljalasamvara together with the deities with whom he is to be
worshipped iyaga-) and his Mantra, as the means of propitiating the Yoginis. As
soon as the Mantra adept has mastered this he will reach the domain of the Khe-
caris and move freely through the triple universe, possessing [all] the supernatural
powers of the [Yogini] clans'.
395 Picumata f. 251v2— 3 (56.12— 13b): samuham jalam ity uktam yogininam maho-
dayam \ sam sukham vara datrtva<t> *samuhatvavivaksaya (samuhatva em. :
samuhatvam Cod.) | * yogesiyogabhdvastham (yogesiyoga conj. : yogayogisa Cod.)
yoginljalasamvaram | mantram tu kathitam devi bhairavasyamitatmakam 'The ex-
pression Yogimjala [in Yoginljalasamvara] means the exalted totality of the Yoginis,
jalam 'net' denoting 'multitude' [here]. The sam of -samvara means 'bliss' (sukham).
The YoginIjalasamvara[mantra] is so named because it is the bestower {-vara) of
that bliss, [-vara- being formed as an agent noun from the verb vr- 'to give']. It is
the granter of this bliss to the Yogimjala in as much as it is located in the inner state
of *the Yoga of the Yogesvaris, the plurality of these being intended in the sense of
their totality (conj.). The Mantra of Bhairava [that bears this name] is infinite [in
its power]'.
396 Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapahjika on 1.1— 2b (athato rahasyam vaksye samasan na
tu vistarat | sriherukasamyogam sarvakamarthasadhakam | uttarad api cottaram
dakinijalasamvaram 'Next I shall teach the secret, in brief rather than at length,
the congress of Sriheruka, the accomplisher of all desires, the Dakinijalasamvara,
higher even than the higher'): uttarad api cottaram iti desyadesakayor abhedat |
yany uttaratantrani samajadini tesam apy uttaratvad uktam \ dakinijalasamvaram
iti | dakinyah sarvas tricakravyavasthitdh \ tasam jalah samuhas tasya samvarah \
samvaranam gopanam ity arthah 'It is referred to as higher even than the higher
because it is higher even than the Tantras [of the Yogottara class] headed by the
[Guhya]samdja, which are 'higher' because the difference between teacher and the
taught is absent [in them]. As for [the title] Dakinijalasamvara, it means the con-
cealing of the net, that is to say, of the totality of all the Dakinis that are established
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The Saiva Age
Cakra- name 'Khor lo sdom pa and so support the form Cakrasamvara, we also
find 'Khor lo bde mchog in their translations, which supports the alternative
C akras amvara. 397
The reason for this inconstancy is evidently that sa and sa are both pro-
nounced as sa in Bengali, as they were in the Magadhi Prakrit of the drama-
tists. 398 Consequently, instead of attempting to decide which form is correct we
should recognize that for the east-Indian followers of this tradition there was in
effect only one word here (samvara / samvara), which could be understood either
as 'the highest {-vara- [Tib. mchog]) bliss (sam [Tib. bole])' or as 'fusion' and the
like by derivation from the verbal root vr preceded by the preverb sam. That this
was the case is demonstrated by a passage in the Samvarodaya in which the two
semantic analyses, explaining samvara- and samvara- respectively, are given for
one and the same word. 399
Samvara/Vajrarudra and VajravarahI: The Transformation of
BHAIRAVA AND HIS CONSORT. What marks the new start seen in the Yogini-
tantras is a far more comprehensive adoption of the practices of the Saiva
Vidyapitha texts, to the extent that there is little in the observances of these
texts that does not draw on that source. Heruka is now paired with a lustful
consort (VajravarahI in the Cakrasamvara texts and Nairatmya in those of
Hevajra), and in the case of the Cakrasamvara tradition, so are the principal
Yoginis of his retinue, a feature that matches the practice of the Vidyapitha's
Picumata (Brahmayamala). Moreover, in the case of the tradition elaborated on
the basis of the Laghusamvara the icon of Heruka has several blatantly obvious
features of the iconography of Siva (/Bhairava) in addition to those manifest in
in the three circuits [of the Mandala of Cakrasamvara], samvarah being derived
from the verb samvr- 'to conceal' in the sense of the action of concealing'.
397 In the DT 'khor lo sdom pa (cakrasamvara-) occurs about 250 times and 'khor lo bde
mchog (cakrasamvara-) about 100; see, e.g., DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. cha, f. 242v3 ('khor
lo bde mchog gi gzugs can); vol.ja, f. 58v7 ('khor lo bde mchog gi rgyud), and f. 102r7
('khor lo bde mchog gi sngags).
398 See, for Magadhi, Vararuci, Prakrtaprakasa 11.2: sasoh sah 's is used in place of
both s and s'. Generally in Middle and New Indo-Aryan the three Sanskrit sibilants
have been reduced to s. It has been reported that in the Tantric Buddhist Doha
texts, composed in what has been called Eastern Apabhramsa, s has been preserved
in derivatives of words that have it in Sanskrit (Tagare 1987, p. 77). It is true that
a few such forms are found in the manuscripts (Shahidullah 1928, p. 37), but
there are many cases in which s does not appear, such as sunna for Skr. sunya. It is
likely that the occasional distinction between s and s was learned window-dressing
and that both consonants were pronounced s.
399 Samvarodaya 3.17c-19b: samvaram sarvabuddhanam evamkare pratisthitam ||
kayavakcetasam karma sarvakaraikasamvaram \ samvaram sukhavaram bodhir
avacyam anidarsanam || rahasyam sarvabuddhanam milanam samvaram varam.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the Heruka of the Sarvabuddhasamdyoga. He is black-bodied, and has twelve
arms and four faces, with three eyes in each. He stands in the warrior pose
with a Vajra and a Vajra-topped bell in his two principal hands, holding the
bleeding hide of a flayed elephant over his back with his two uppermost hands,
and in the remaining eight a rattle-drum (damaruh), a battle-axe, a chopping
knife, and a trident, a skull-topped staff (khatvdngah), a skull-bowl (kapdlam)
filled with blood, a lasso (pdsah), and the severed head of the god Brahma,
wearing a long garland of fifty bleeding human heads around his neck, adorned
with five ornaments of human bone and the ash of cremation-pyres smeared
over his limbs — these, the bone ornaments and ash, are the Six Mudras of the
Kapalikas — , with a tiger skin around his waist, a brahmanical cord in the
form of a snake (ndgayajnopavltah), and a chaplet of skulls (kapdlamdld) above
his forehead, his hair arranged in a high crown-like mass of ascetic's braids
(jatdmukutah) adorned at the front with two crossed Vajras (visvavajram) and
the new moon. His consort Vajravarahi stands before him in sexual union, with
Heruka holding her to his chest with the hands that hold the Vajra and the
Vajra-bell crossed at the wrists behind her back. She is red, one-faced, and
two-armed, naked but for a filigree of fragments of human bone adorning her
hips (asthimekhald), her right arm raised aloft holding a chopping-knife, with
her index finger extended in a gesture of threatening the wicked, and her left
arm, wrapped around Heruka's neck, holding to their mouths a skull bowl full
of human blood and entrails, wearing a garland of fifty desiccated heads and the
five Kapalika bone-ornaments, laughing, and intoxicated by lust. They are sur-
rounded by a retinue of thirty-six goddesses termed Yoginis, Dakinis, Viresvaris,
or Virinis visualized in the same Kapalika style, in concentric circuits of four,
twenty-four, and eight, the twenty-four embracing Vira consorts and worshipped
as residing in twenty-four sacred sites covering the whole subcontinent, from
Uddiyana in the north to Ramesvara at India's southern tip, from Sindhu in
the west to Devikotta in the east. The whole is surrounded by a ring of eight
cremation grounds. 400
The features of Siva's iconography evident here are the trident, the third
eye, the new moon on the piled up braids, the tiger-skin lower garment, the
multiple faces and arms, the skull-bowl, the skull-staff, the bleeding elephant
hide, the severed head of Brahma, the snake as brahmanical thread, the sharp
fangs, the chaplet of skulls, his dwelling in the cremation grounds, and the ashes
400 This description of Heruka and Vajravarahi follows that given by Jayabhadra in
his Cakrasamvarapahjika, p. 109, on Laghusamvara 1.10. for the iconography of
the Yoginis and Viras see Bhavabhatta's Cakrasamvaravivrti on Laghusamvara,
Patala 4 (vol. 1, pp. 44-47). See also Nispannayogdvali, pp. 26-29.
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The Saiva Age
on his limbs. All these had entered Siva's iconography long before the forma-
tion of the Tantras of the Cakrasamvara cycle. Siva's trident appears on seals
and intaglios during the Kusana and Kusano-Sassanian periods in Gandhara
and Afghanistan. 401 The third eye appears in sculptures of Siva from Mathura
around the beginning of the third century; and the ascetic's piled braids and
the new moon upon them appear there and elsewhere from the beginning of the
fifth; 402 and all these characteristics, the trident in his hand, the third eye, the
ascetic's braids, and the new moon, are mentioned in the Mahabharata, 403 as
are his tiger-skin, his multiple faces and arms, his skull-bowl, his skull-staff, his
brahmanical thread in the form of a snake, his sharp fangs, his garland of skulls,
and his living in the cremation grounds smeared with ashes from its funeral
pyres. 404 His wearing a bleeding elephant hide is also a commonplace by that
time, being mentioned along with his crematorial characteristics in the works of
the poet Kalidasa. 405 As for the severed head of Brahma, this too derives from
a well-known Saiva myth which though not found in the Mahabharata in the
text common to all the regional versions, 406 does appear in the Skandapurana-
401 For a recent analysis of Siva images in the subcontinent, including those on coins,
from the first century B.C. to the end of the Kusana period, see Ghose 2002, pp.
70-96.
402 Kreisel 1986 (Mathura, c. 400), p. 82; Barker 1997, pp. 149-151 (Mansar, c.
400-450).
403 Mahabharata 3.8.111a (trisulapaneh); 13.14.119 (balendumukutam . . . tribhir ne-
traih krtoddyotam), 12.122.24b (sulajatadharah), 7.172.59c (jatamandalacandra-
maulim).
404 See, e.g., Mahabharata 13.127.18a (vyaghracarmdmbaradharah); 14.8.30d (maha-
devam caturmukham), 13.14.116c (astadasabhujam sthanum), 14.8.28a (viriipa-
ksam dasabhujam), 13.17.40a (dasabahus tv animiso); 12.36.2c (kapalapanih
khatvahgi), 10.7.4d (khatvahgadharinam); 13. 15. lied (tiksnadamstram ...vyala-
yajhopavitam), 14.8.21a (tlksnadamstraya karalaya); 10.6.33c (kapalamalinam);
10.7.4a (smasanavasinam); 13.14.153c (suklabhasmavaliptaya) .
405 Meghadiita 36c: hara pasupater ardrandgajineccham 'Remove Siva's desire for his
[blood-]wet elephant hide'; Kumarasambhava 5.67d: gajdjinam sonitabinduvarsi
ca '[his] elephant hide that showers drops of blood'; 5.77b: trilokanathah
pitrsadmagocarah 'The Lord of the Three Worlds frequents cremation grounds';
5.69c, 5.79b: citabhasmarajah 'the ash-dust of funeral pyres'; and 5.71b: kapdlinah
'decked with skulls'. Rudra/Siva frequently has the epithet krttivasas- 'wearer of
the hide' in the Mahabharata. The Matsyapurana (Patala 153) relates that this is
the hide of the elephant demon Gajasura killed by Siva in a great battle between
the gods and the Asuras. How the elephant hide was understood when incorporated
into the iconography of Heruka is not stated in most instances of its mention. But
in two Kalpas in the Abhidhanottara, those of Samayasamvara and the Heruka of
the ekaviravidhanam, it is said to be that of the elephantine Saiva-brahmanical de-
ity Ganapati (B f. 34vl: aparabhujadvayena ganapaticarmdmbara^dharam (corr. :
dhara Cod.) and (B f. 40v2-3: aparabhujadvayena ganapaticarmambaradhar ah).
406 There is a reference to it in a supplementary passage of 26 verses inserted within a
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Ambikakhanda, 407 probably composed in the sixth or perhaps the first half of
the seventh century. 408 Other features in addition to these, namely the garland
of severed or desiccated heads, the chopping knife, the rattle-drum, the Kapalika
bone-ornaments, the consort, the skull-bowl full of blood and entrails, the retinue
of Yoginis, their pairing with Vira consorts, the sacred sites, the theriocephalic
gate-guardians, and the encircling cremation grounds, are commonplaces of the
iconography of the Vidyapitha texts. Only the Vajras place a Buddhist seal on
the icon.
The image, then, has every appearance of representing a Buddhist trans-
formation of Siva himself in his Bhairava aspect. Indeed in his commentary on
the Laghusamvara Jayabhadra refers to this Heruka as Vajrarudra, that is to
say, as Siva/Bhairava converted and liberated by assimilation into the essence of
Buddha-hood, 409 thereby definitively surrendering and transcending his Saiva
identity. In clear expression of this transcendence Heruka/Vajrarudra and Va-
jravarahi are depicted and visualized standing on the sprawling, terrified bodies
of a black Bhairava and a red, emaciated Kalaratri, their own pre-Buddhist iden-
tities as the principal deities of the Vidyapitha. 410
hymn to Siva (13.14.150-166) after 13.14.153 in the Maithili and Bengali versions,
the Devanagari version of the commentator Nilakantha, in several manuscripts
of the composite version, and the Kumbhakonam edition (Anusdsanaparvan, Ap-
pendix I, no. 6, 1. 45): brahmasiropahartdya '[obeisance] to the remover of Brahma's
head'.
407 5.1-63 (ed. Adriaensen, Bakker, and Isaacson, pp. 132-141).
408 See here p. 51.
409 Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjikd on Patala 12: krtapurvasevo mantrirdt iti
vajrarudrayogavdn 'When the king among Mantra adepts has completed the
preparatory service (purvasevd), that is to say, when he has achieved a state of
complete identification with Vajrarudra . . . '; and on Patala 27: jndnahetujam iti
| jndnasya prakarsaparyantam | tasya hetuh kdranam bhagavdn vajrarudrah \
tasmdj jdto bhavatity arthah 'jnanahetujam means born from the cause of knowl-
edge, where knowledge is wisdom's ultimate degree and its cause is Lord Vajra-
rudra'. Vajrarudra appears already in the Sarvabuddhasamdyoga in a passage
that associates the nine dramatic sentiments (rasdh) with Vajrasattva, Tathagata,
Vajradhara, Lokesvara, Vajrasurya, Vajrarudra, Sakyamuni, Arali (or perhaps
Aralli), and Sasvata (Vairocana) respectively. Vajrarudra's is the sentiment of ter-
ror (bhaydnakarasah) and it is probable therefore that we should understand Vajra-
rudra to be Heruka. Sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba f. 128r3: rdo rje
sems dpa' steg pa la | dpa' la dpa' bo de bzhin gshegs | rdo rje 'dzin pa snying rje la
| rgod pa jig rten dbang phyug mchog | rdo rje nyi ma khro ba la | rdo rje drag po
'jigs pa la | shd kya ihubpa mi sdug la | ngo mtshar la ni a rali\ rab tu zhi la sangs
rgyas rtag C'srhgdre vajrasattva hi vire caiva tathdgatah | vajradhrk karundydm
tu hdsye caiva lokesvarah | vajrasuryas tathd raudre vajrarudro bhayanake \
sdkyamunis tu bibhatse drallir adbhute tathd \prasdnte sdsvatas caiva).
410 Kalaratri here is the fearsome emaciated goddess variously called Carca, Carcika,
Camunda, and Karnamoti; see here p. 231.
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The Saiva Age
The Rise of the Goddess to Independence. Here Heruka's consort is
visibly his dependent: while he has four faces and twelve arms she has only one
and two. But in the subsequent development of this tradition we find a strongly
Sakta tendency to elevate her to equality with Heruka and eventually to superi-
ority, just as occurred in the development of the Vidyapitha. 411 Thus in certain
other Kalpas in which Heruka is united with Vajravarahi at the centre of the
Mandala her status is raised by endowing her with four faces and four or more
arms. This is the case in the Kalpa of the sixth Patala of the Abhidhdnottara,
which teaches what it calls the ekaviravidhdnam, the procedure in which the two
deities alone are worshipped as 'solitary heroes' (ekavira-), that is to say, without
the the retinue of the thirty-six Yoginis and twenty-four Viras. Here Heruka has
twelve arms and Vajravarahi four, holding a blood-filled skull-bowl, a chopping-
knife raised aloft with the gesture of threat, a rattle-drum, and a skull-staff. But
both have four faces. 412 In the seventh Patala a two-faced, six-armed Vajrasattva
transforms into a six-faced, twelve-armed Heruka Manjuvajramahasukha ac-
companied by a Vajravarahi who has the same number of faces and arms and
holds the same attributes in her hands. Brahma's severed head is absent here,
but Brahma himself is not: his flayed skin takes the place of the elephant hide;
and in place of a tiger skin we see that of Bhairava. 413 We see the same equality
in the tenth Patala, where both Heruka and Vajravarahi are five-faced and ten-
411 See Sanderson 1988, pp. 668-678.
412 Abhidhdnottara B f. 40r3: athdnya<m> sampravaksydmi ekaviravidhdnakam
| . . . (f. 40r6) sriherukam dtmdnam bhdvayet \ caturmukham dvadasabhujam
. . . (f. 41rl-3) tasydgrato dlikdlisthitd bhagavati vajravarahi raktavarnd catur-
vaktrd caturbhujd trinetrd muktakesi | nagnd khandamanditamekhald | vdme
bhujdlihganakapdlam ca dustamdrddyasrgbodhicittaparipurnam daksine tar-
janivajrakartikd | aparabhujadvaye damarukhatvdhga<m>. The retinue is absent
only in the sense that the deities are not positioned around Heruka and Vajravarahi.
Instead the twenty-four Yogim-Vira couples are installed from the head of Heruka
down to his feet, and the four Yoginis of the innermost circuit and the eight of the
outermost are installed in the twelve objects in his hands.
413 Abhidhdnottara B f. 50v5-6: tatpardvrttyd sadvajram vajrasattvam vibhdvayet |
trimukham sadbhujam caiva trinetram karundrasam | . . . (ff. 52v5— 53r3) anena
codito ndtho bijam utpannam uttamam | kuhkumdkdravarndbham vajracihna-
samutthitam | *sanmukham (corr. : khanmukham Cod.) dvadasabhujam
vdrdhydsamalamkrtam | *sada(?)viramahdviram ardhaparyahkasamsthitam | tri-
netram hasitam raudram kardlam bibhatsam Helihdnanam (em. : lelihdnalam
Cod.) karundrasam \ bhairavam kdlardtrim ca pdddkrdntatale sthitam |
athavdlidhasamsthdnakrtayogam *mahddbhutam (conj. : mahadbhutam Cod.) |
. . . (f. 53r5-v2) *brahmanah (em. : brdhmana Cod.) krttim utkrttya prsthaprdvrta-
vigraham | raudrabhairavacarmena *katim (corr. : katir Cod.) dvestya samsthitam |
kapdlakhatvdhgadhara<m> asi-utpalasaradhdrinam \ ahkusapdsadamarumunda-
cdpadharam tathd | tadvaktrdyudhavdrdhyd mahdrdgapade sthitd | jahghddvaya-
samdslistd mahdsurata*sundarl (corr. : sumdhard Cod.) | mundasragddmadehogrd
sanmudrdcihnabhusitd | evam bhdvayate yogi manjuvajramahdsukham.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
armed, 414 and in the eleventh, where a six-faced, twelve-armed Heruka wearing
the flayed skin of Rudra on his back embraces a twelve-armed Vajravarahi; 415
and in the twentieth, in which a red five-faced and twelve-armed Heruka em-
braces a Vajravarahi with same colour and hand-attributes. 416
The literature also teaches Kalpas in which Vajravarahi is worshipped in her
own right in the centre of a circuit or circuits of Yoginis. She may be one-faced
and two-armed, as when she is worshipped as Heruka's consort, standing in the
warrior pose at the centre of the circle of the eight cremation grounds, naked,
red and menstruating, her face contorted with anger, with large fangs, three
red eyes, wearing a chaplet of five skulls framed by two rows of Vajras, with
crossed Vajras on her unbound hair, wearing a garland of fifty heads, which are
not desiccated, as they are when she is Heruka's consort, but, like his, freshly
severed and dripping blood. She holds aloft a red Vajra in her left hand with
her index extended, a skull-bowl full of blood in her right, and a long white skull-
staff resting in the crook of her left arm, She may possess, as before, only the first
five of the six Mudras; but some emphasized her pre-eminence by requiring that
since she is now the central deity of the Mandala she should also be smeared with
ashes. She is surrounded by the thirty-six Yoginis, disposed as in the Mandala
of Heruka, but with the difference that the Yoginis, like her, wear garlands of
freshly severed heads, 417 or by only the inner circuit of four, or with no retinue
414 Abhidhanottara B ff. 71r3-72v5: vajrasattvapardvrttyd herukatvam vibhdva-
yet | pancdnanam dasabhujam vdrdhydsamalamkrtam . . . (f. 72v4-5) tadvarna-
bhuja* samsthdnd (corr. : samsthdnam Cod.) muktakesi tu nagnika vydghracarma-
nivasand khandamanditamekhald \ kapdlamdlini raudri karundrdgasuvihvald .
415 Abhidhanottara B ff. 79v3-80r6: sadvaktram viram bibhatsam srhgdrahasitam
raudram lelihdnanam \ sanmudrdmudritam deham nanabharanamanditam \
vdrdhyd *tu samdpannam (em. : nusamdpannd Cod.) jdnudvayasuvestitam . . . (f.
80r2) rudracarmdmbaradharam . . . (f. 80r5-6) tadvarnabhujasamsthdnd mukta-
kesi tu nagnika.
416 Abhidhanottara B f. 113r3— v4: herukdkdram dtmdnam ddkinicayapardvrtam \
mahogram raktavapusam pancajnanodbhavodbhavam | raktam nilam ca haritam
pitam santasitordhvakam | trinetram dvadasabhujam alidhapadasamsthitam |
. . . (f. 113v3-4) agrato vajravarahya tadvarnayudhadharini.
417 This is the main Kalpa taught in the Abhisamayamahjari (pp. 131, 1. 9-133, 1.
1). I propose the following emendations and corrections to the text of the pub-
lished edition: for mithya drstiprahana vikrtaikananam (p. 131, 1. 15) read mithya-
drstiprahanad vikrtaikananam ; for cakrikundalakanthikdrucakakhatvahga-
mekhalakhyapancamudradharam (p. 131, 1. 18) read cakrikundalakanthikarucaka-
khandahkamekhalakhyapancamudrddharam; for iti kecit | mandalanayikatvena
sanmudritam ity eke read iti mandalanayikatvena sanmudritam ity eke (p.
132, 1. 3); for vajravalldvayamadhyakrta- read vajravalidvayamadhylkrta- (p.
132, 1. 9); and for astavijhanam nairatmydsvarupatvena read astavijndndndm
nairdtmyasvarupatvena (p. 132, 1. 12).
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The Saiva Age
at all. 418
There are other forms of this kind, among which one is particulary worthy of
note because it shows her four-faced and twelve-armed like Heruka himself, his
equal as it were or, rather, the fusion of both within her, since her fanged face is
divided down the middle into a male half on her right and a female half on her
left (ardhanarisvaramukha), a Sakta reflex of the well-known Ardhanarisvara
image of Siva. She has the same hand-attributes as the twelve-armed Heruka
except that the battle-axe and trident have gone, an elephant-goad has taken the
latter's place. The hand that held the skull-staff now holds the skull-bowl, the
skull-staff rests in the crook of that arm, and the two hands that are now free
form the flame gesture (jvalamudra) on her forehead. The place of the elephant
hide is taken by the flayed skin of a man. She holds the Vajra and bell in her
crossed principal hands and turns them over each other in the gesture known as
the revolving lotus (kamalavartah). She is red, naked, and intoxicated with pas-
sion, adorned with all six Mudras, the new moon and crossed Vajras on her hair,
a chaplet of skulls above her forehead, and the bone-filigree around her hips.
She dances wildly in the centre of her retinue, visualized at the moment that she
stands with her left leg on the ground flexed at the knee and her right foot raised
and placed on the inside of her left thigh with the right knee turned out. She
is surrounded by the thirty-six Yoginls with the addition of the four goddesses
Mamaki, Locana, Tara, and Pandaravasin of the Guhyasamdja Yogottara sys-
tem. The four innermost goddesses have the heads of a lion, sow, elephant, and
horse, and hold in their four hands the skull-bowl, skull-staff, head of Brahma,
and chopping-knife. Outside them are the four Yogottara goddesses, each at the
centre of a lotus with six petals, six-armed and adorned with the six Mudras.
They hold in one of their two principal hands the symbol of the Tathagata-family
to which each belongs (a Vajra, a wheel, two crossed Vajras, and a lotus respec-
tively) and in the other a bell, turning them over each other. In the other hands
they hold a skull-bowl, the head of Brahma, and a rattle-drum, with a skull-staff
in the crook of the principal left arm. The twenty-four Yoginls of the sacred sites
are placed in groups of six on the petals of these lotuses. They are four-armed,
and hold the symbol of the Tathagata-family of the Yogottara goddess on whose
lotus they are placed, a skull-bowl, a skull-staff, and a rattle-drum. They wear
chaplets of skulls and show only five of the six seals. Like the central goddess
they are half male and half female {ardhanarisvaryah). All the goddesses in the
Mandala up to this point are naked and dancing. Outside them is the final circuit
of eight Yoginls. The four in the four doors of the Mandala, with the heads of a
418 Abhisamayamanjan, p. 142, 11. 13—19.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
crow, owl, dog, and sow, stand naked in the warrior-pose, dwarfish, with squint-
ing eyes. The four in the corners have the heads of a buffalo, an ass, a camel, and
a horse, and like all but the door-guardians, are visualized in the dance posture.
All eight of these outer Yoginis have the five Mudras and chaplets of skulls, and
are four-armed, holding a skull-bowl, the head of Brahma in their left hands, and
a chopping-knife and rattle-drum in their right. 419
The cult of the independent goddess (BhagavatI) appears to have been
a particularly vigorous development, to judge from the exceptionally large
number of variant forms that emerged. 420 Within the earlier scriptural lit-
erature the Abhidhdnottara contains several sections devoted to Sadhanas of
Vajravarahi; 421 in the Herukdbhyudaya eleven of its forty-four chapters are
devoted to her Mantras and their procedures; 422 and the section of the Tenjur
devoted to the Cakrasamvara cycle (Toh. 1403-1606) contains over sixty texts
devoted to the varieties of her cult as Vajravarahi or Vajrayogini (Toh. 1541-
1606). Sakyaraksita, a pupil of Abhayakaragupta (1064-1125), after detailing
the Sadhana of several of her forms in his AbhisamayamafijarT, 423 adds that
these are but a few of the many that were current in his time: 424
So it should be understood that in accordance with the various mentalities of
those requiring to be trained there are countless traditions of the Goddess such
as this, transmitted through the generations from teacher to pupil in accordance
with the [founding] instruction of various Siddhas. What I have shown here is no
more than an indicative fraction of the whole.
This Sakta trend is also evidenced in the practice of the Newars of the Kath-
mandu valley down modern times. For their ceremony of initiation before the
Mandala of Cakrasamvara is followed on the final day by initiation before
419 This form is taught in Abhidhdnottara ff. 63vl-70r4 (Patala 9 in the enumera-
tion of this manuscript), from which it entered the Varahyabhyudaya. A lightly
adjusted version of this Kalpa is found in the collection of Sadhanas of Va-
jravarahi/Vajrayogim that came to bear the title Guhyasamayasadhanamala in the
colophons of later manuscripts; see English 2002, pp. 54-59.
420 See English 2002 for an illustrated survey of these variants.
421 Patala 12/9: Varahi Vajrayogini (4-faced, 12-armed; ardhandrisvarimukha); 22/19:
Mrtasamjivam (4-faced or 8-faced, 16-armed); 36/33: Vajravarahi (3-faced and
6-armed or 6-faced and 12-armed, surrounded by Guhyottama etc.); 37/34: Va-
jravarahi surrounded by Yamini etc.
422 Patalas 6, 8-11, 23-24, 29-31, and 34.
423 rp^g AbJii sama y ama fij ar i i s ascribed to Subhakaragupta in its sole edition. This is
an error and goes against the evidence of the colophons of the manuscripts (EN-
GLISH 2002, p. 357, n. 6).
424 Abhisamayamahjari, p. 152: tad *evamadayah (em. : evam adaya Ed.) siddho-
padesaparamparayata vineyasayabhedad ananta bhagavatya amnaya boddhavyah
| dihmatram idam darsitam.
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The Saiva Age
the Mandala of Vajradevi (Vajravarahi). 425 Nor was this confined to the sub-
continent. In Tibet too Vajravarahi/Vajrayogini rose to a position of special
honour, notably in the bKa' brgyud and Sa skya traditions, but also in later
times among the dGe lug pas, rNying ma pas, and Bon pos. 426
There are other compilations, scriptural and secondary, that survive in
Nepalese manuscripts but did not reach Tibet, which attest her prominence
in the last phase of the Mantranaya: the Vajravarahikalpa, of about three
thousand verses, which interweaves the Dakarnava and the Samvarodaya,
and incorporates thirteen non-scriptural Sadhana texts of Vajravarahi and
one of Nairatmya, the consort of Hevajra; 427 the closely related Yoginijala,
of about one thousand verses; and the collection of forty-six Sadhanas of
Vajrayogini known as the Guhyasamayasadhanamala. 428 Moreover, two texts
devoted to the cult of this goddess were added to the canon of scripture re-
ceived by the Tibetans. The first is the Vdrdhyabhyudayatantra, a short
work of three hundred verses counted among the explanatory Tantras of
the Laghusamvara but consisting almost entirely of passages lifted from the
Samputodbhava, the Abhidhdnottara, and the Samvarodaya; 42 ® and the second
Gellner 1992, pp. 273-279. His account of the ceremonies is based upon what he
was told by the late Asha Kaji Vajracharya (ibid., p. 273). That the Cakrasamvara
initiation is followed by a separate Vajradevi initiation is confirmed by the evidence
of the Diksavidhi, the manual in the Newari language that guides these rituals.
; See English 2002, pp. xxii-xxvii.
I have not yet undertaken a thorough analysis of the whole text. The interweav-
ing that I report is of Dakarnava, Patala 2-3 and Samvarodaya 2-3 in the first 3
Patalas. The nidanavakyam of the Samvarodaya is borrowed with the substitution
of vardhibhagesu for the Samvarodaya's yoginibhagesu. I have noted the incorpo-
ration of the following Sadhana texts (identified here with the numbers ascribed
in BHATTACHARYA's composite Sadhanamala): 217-218 in Patala 36, 219-225 in
Patala 37, 226-228 and 231 in Patala 38.
This is the title under which the work has been catalogued in Tsukamoto et al.
1989, p. 285. It is based, I surmise, on the colophon of the last Sadhana in the
collection, the Ddkiniguhyasamayasddhana of Anangayogin.
1 The correspondences are as follows (S = Samputodbhava; LS = Laghusamvara; AU
= Abhidhdnottara; SU = Samvarodaya): 1.5-6b = S 6.3.26-27b; 1.17 = S 6.3.44c-
45b; 1.18ab = S 6.3.45cd; 1.20cd ~ S 6.3.46cd; 1.21 = S 6.3.47; 1.31 ~ S 6.4.39;
1.33-43b = S 6.4.40-50; 2.15 = LS 1.19; 2.17c-18 = S 6.3.2-3b; 2.24-27b = S 6.3.3c-
6; 2.27cd = S 6.2.2ab and 6.3.7ab; 2.28-29 = S 6.2.2c-4b; 2.31-33b = S 6.2.4c-6b;
2.34-40 = S 6.2.6c-14; 2.43-44d = S 6.2.15c-16; 3.1-2 = S 6.2.27-28; 5.8-14 =
S 6.3.11-17; 6.1-2 = SU 7.1-2; 6.3b-6b = SU 7.14c-17; 6.6c-12b = S 6.3.35-40b;
6.14-19b = S 6.3.40c-45; 6.23-30 = AU 14.58-65; 7.3-7 = S 6.3.19c-24; 8.3-5 = AU
3.8c-llb; 8.17c-18 = AU 16.2-3b; 8.20b ~ AU 16.3c; 8.20c = AU 16.4a; 8.21-22 *
AU 16.4b-5; 8.24-37 = AU 16.6-19; 8.39-41 = AU 16.23-25; 9.1c-5 = AU 4.3-7b;
9.6-17a = AU 4.9-20b; 9.21-39a = AU 4.24-38f; 9.39c-41b = AU 4.42c-44b; 9.41c-
44 = AU 4.39-42b; 9.45-51 ('47', '48' and '50' are Mantras) = AU 4.44c-46 (with the
same Mantras); 9.52ab = AU 4.51ab; 9.54ab = AU 4.51cd; 10 = AU 50.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
is the Vidyadharlkramavajrayoginisadhana, which appears in the Kanjur (Toh.
380) between the major Tantras of the Cakrasamvara cycle and those of con-
tested authenticity, 430 included perhaps, in spite of its genre, because it states
in its opening words that it is part of the otherwise unattested Mahamayajalo-
rdhvajatottaratantra, which, it claims, was extracted from the Trilaksa, that it
to say, from the vast mythical Ur-text of this cycle, the Trilaksabhidhana. 431
Further evidence of this Sakta trend is seen in the views of the tradition
concerning the nature of the revelation of this Ur-text, which, it was claimed,
contained the required Buddhist preamble (nidanavakyam) that is lacking in
the Laghusamvara itself. Bhavabhatta, taking care not to claim direct access to
that mythical source, saying only that his knowledge of its nidanavakyam has
reached him through the lineage of his teachers (guruparampara), 432 asserts
that it reveals that the teacher of the Tantra was Bhagavan Mahavajradhara,
the requester his consort Bhagavati Vajravarahi, and the reciter Vajrapani.
These then, it follows for Bhavabhatta, are the dramatis personae of the
Laghusamvara too. But he reports a contrary view that Vajravarahi was the
teacher and Mahavajradhara her pupil. 433 The imposition on the text of the
claim that it is a dialogue between the deity and his goddess-consort brings it
into line with the Saiva scriptural literature of the Vidyapitha. For there the
Tantras take the form of Bhairava's teachings in answer to the questions of
the Goddess (Devi/Bhairavi). In the explanatory Tantras of the Cakrasamvara
cycle this model is made explicit in the Vajradaka, where Vajrasattva/Vajradaka
teaches in response to the questions of Devi, and in the Dakarnava and Va-
jravarahikalpa, where Viresvara responds to the questions of Vlresvari. But
in the Caturyoginisamputa, another of the satellite Tantras of this cycle, the
goddess Vajrini (Vajravarahi) is the teacher and Vajrin (Heruka) the ques-
tioner. 434 That this inversion seen in the view reported by Bhavabhatta and
430 In Sanskrit it is preserved as the twenty-first Sadhana in the Guhyasamaya-
sadhanamala , ff. 85r4— 86rl.
431 Guhyasamayasadhanamala, f. 62r2: athatah sampravaksyami trilaksakrstamaha-
mayajalordhvajatottaratantre
432 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapahjika, introduction: mahavajradharo desakah.
. . . bhagavati vajravarahy adhyesika vajrapanih samgata . . . vajravarahy-
adhyesitasya bhagavatah prativacanam etad athata ityadi . . . adhyesika deviti ko
niyama iti cet | guruparamparato hi sruyate mulatantre saivadhyesiketi | tata ihapi
saiveti gamy ate.
433 Ibid., following the preceding citation: bhagavan adhyesako bhagavati desiketi
kecit. acintyarupo hi tathagatanam abhiprayah 'Some say that the Lord
[Mahavajradhara] was the requester and the Goddess [Vajravarahi] the teacher.
For the intention of the Tathagatas is inscrutable'.
434 Caturyoginisamputa 2.15d-16: atha sa vajrini devi idam vakyam udirayet |
abhisekam *sukathitam (conj. [=legs par brjod nas Tib.] : kathitam Cod.)
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The Saiva Age
in the Caturyoginlsamputa is evidence of a more Sakta tendency within the
tradition is obvious in itself, but it is confirmed by parallel practice in the
most Sakta of the Saiva scriptures, namely the Kalikulakramasadbhava, the
Kalikulapancasataka, and the Manthanabhairava.
The Adoption of the VidyapItha's Carya and Yoga. As for the
practice of initiates into this tradition, that too shows increased saktization.
For it now enacts the iconography of their deities through the adoption of
the VidyapItha's Kapalika mode of post-initiatory observance (carydvratam).
Buddhist Sadhakas now carry the skull-bowl (kapdlam) and skull-staff
(khatvangah), and put on the Mudras of human bone and a brahmanical thread
(yajnopavitam) made of the twisted hair of corpses or human sinew, and dust
their bodies with ash. 435
*ganamandalam eva ca (conj. [=tshogs kyi dkyil 'khor nyid dag dang Tib.] : lack-
ing in Cod.) | aparam kathayisydmi devatdnydsam uttamam 'Then that goddess
VajrinI uttered the following words: I have fully explained the initiation rites and
the Ganamandala. Next I shall explain the supreme [rite of the] installation of the
deities'. For the verb udirayet as a past indicative cf. Pali udlrayi.
435 E.g. Yogaratnamala on Hevajra, p. 155: carydkdle ganacakrddau va pancdndm
mudranam dharana; Laghusamvara f. 37v3 (51.2): nivasanam pahcamudrddi
gdtrasya; Abhidhdnottara B f. 10v2-2 (3.18): pahcamudrddharo nityam kapala-
krtasekharah \ kapdlakhatvdhgadhdri ca bhasmoddhulitavigrahah; Bhavabhatta,
Cakrasamvarapanjika on Laghusamvara 51.21a: pancamudrdditi. kanthikdcuda-
keyurakundalabrahmasutraniti; Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjika on Laghu-
samvara: p. 128: panca mudra rucakasiromanikundalakanthikayajnopavitah
panca | sarvada tair avirahito bhavet; Yoginisamcara 6.12c-13d: kanthikarucaka-
kundalasiromanivibhusitah yajnopavitam bhasmeti mudrasatkam prakirtitam;
Khrag 'thung mngon par 'byung ba f. 13r4 (Herukabhyudaya 15.27): nub mo ru
ni dam tshig ste | dpa' bo rtag tu gcer bu yin | sgrub pos sngags dang phyag
rgya dang | phyag rgya Inga dang yang dag Idan 'Observing the vows (samayl),
the Sadhaka Hero (vlrah) [should] always [be] naked at night (ratrau ca satatam
nagnah [?]), equipped with the Mantras and Mudras (mantramudranvitah),
and wearing the five [bone] Mudras (pancamudrasamanvitah)'; Hevajra 1.3.14:
cakri kundala kanthi ca haste riicaka mekhala \ pancabuddhavisuddhya ca eta
mudrah prakirtitah; 1.6.2a: sirasi cakri dhartavya (= siromanih, a circlet of
bone; the mekhala is a filigree made of small pieces of bone worn around
the hips); Hevajra 1.6.16cd: bhasma kesapavitram ca yogi bibharti caryaya;
Muktavali ad loc: kesapavitram kesayajhopavitam; Vajravali B, p. 218: athava
nrnaharumayam kesakrtam va brahmasutram 'or the sacred thread may be
made of human sinew or hair'; Abhisamayamahjari, pp. 131—132: cakrikundala-
kanthikdrucakakhanddhkamekhaldkhyapancamudrddharam (see here p. 174) |
kanthikdrucakakundaldni siromanivibhusitam \ yajnopavitam bhasmeti mudra-
satkam prakirtitam iti kecit. For the Saiva case see, e.g., Svacchandoddyota
on 3.2b: mudrdlahkdrabhusitah sikhdkarnaprakosthapratisthdpitapancamudrah;
Picumata, f. 101r3 (21.104): karnau sirasi bdhubhydm asthikhandair vibhusitah;
a verse cited by Yamunacarya in his Agamaprdmdnya, p. 93 (Y), edited here by
collation with the closely related verse cited by Nirmalamani as cited by Brun-
ner in Somasambhupaddhati vol. 3, p. 681, n. 7 (N): *kanthikd (em. : karnikd
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The pan-Indian topography of the Sakta Saivas' sacred sites, their Pithas,
Ksetras, Upaksetras, Samdohas/Chandohas, 436 and the like, is also adopted.
Two lists of such sites are found: one in the Vajradaka and the other in the
Laghusamvara} 31 Also adopted is the practice of visiting these sacred sites
(pithabhramanam) 438 in search of meetings with the Yoginis/Dakinis that are
Y : kundikd N) kundalam caiva *rucakam (Y : uragam N) ca *sikhdmanih (nih
N : nim Y) | *bhasma yajnopavltam ca (Y : kesayajhopavltam ca N) *mudrd-
satkam pracaksate (Y : mudrd ete mahdvratdh [< mahdvratej) 'The [Kapalikas]
teach that the six Mudras are (1) the necklace, (2) the earrings, (3) the bracelets,
(4) the hair-jewel, (5) ashes and (6) the sacred thread [made from human hair]'.
This followed in Y by a second verse: kapdlam atha khatvahgam upamudre
prakirtite | dbhir mudritadehas tu na bhuya iha jdyate 'The skull-bowl and skull-
staff are called the sub-Mudras. One whose body is sealed by these [eightl is not
born again in this [world]'; Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 3, f. 201v3: dvitlyam tu
vratam vaksye ghorakdpdlarupina<m> \ sire kapdlamukutam siromdldvibhusitam \
kare karnau tathd pddau asthikhandair vibhusitau \ vdme kapdlam khatvahgam
tathd vai daksine kare. The six Mudras minus the ashes, that is to say, the
five of the Buddhist lists, are defined, but not numbered, in Jayadrathaydmala,
Satka 1, f. 139rl-3 (23.33-36b), in the order earrings, bracelets, hair-jewel, sa-
cred thread of human hair, and necklace: virdndm nrpasdrdula tantre 'smin
bhairavdrcite \ subhrasahkhe prakartavye dvyahgule karnike subhe \ *rucake (em. :
caruke Cod.) dvyahgule saste turydhgusthah sikhdmanih | trivrnnarakacotpannas
tripahcasarikah samah | kanthdj jaghanasamsparsT (*ja corr. : jah Cod.) sastah
pahcavato 'pi ca || suvrttamanisamghd*ta(corr. : tah Cod.)samghdtaikdvali samd |
dhdryd sddhakacandrena sesabhutd tadiccha*yd (em. : gd Cod). The 80th chap-
ter of the Picumata describes, but does not number, (1) the hair-jewel, (2) earrings,
(3) a necklace (kanthamudrd), (4) the sacred thread, and (5) ornaments of bone
on hands, arms and hips. The last takes the place of the bracelets (rucake) listed
elsewhere and in Vajrayanist texts (Picumata ff. 311v-312r): cuddmanikapdlena
sikhdydm yo nivesitah \ isvaras tatra vijheyo adhidevo vardnane \ jhdnasaktih
kriydkhyd ca karnike parikirtite \ kanthe sthitd tu yd mudrd aham tatrddhidevatam
| rudro mdtrganaih sdrdham jhdtavyas tu vardnane | anantd hy upavite tu saktih
sarvddhvagd para | hastabdhukatisthais ca visnur jheyo 'dhidevatam \ saktayo
vividhdkdrd jatdndm adhidevatam \ etan mahdrthadam deviyo vijdndti tattvatah \
sivavat sa tu boddhavyo viruddhdcarano 'pi yah.
436 rp^g g a j va t erm samdohah for one class of site consistently appears in Buddhist
treatments in the form chandohah (e.g. Laghusamvara 50.22 and Hevajra 1.6.10).
This substitution of initial ch- for s-/s- is probably an east-Indianism; cf. Oriya
chahcibd < Skt. samcayati; Bengali chdtu < Skt. saktuh; Oriya chdc, chacd < Skt.
satya-; Bengali chut, Bengali and Oriya chutd < Skt. sutram; Oriya chana < Skt.
sanah; Bengali chddld < Skt. sddvalam; and Bengali chikal, chikli < Skt. srhkhala-,
srhkhalikd.
437 On these lists see here pp. 192-203.
438 See, e.g. Samvarodaya 8.29b,d: pithddidesagamanena visuddhadeham . . . vande
sadd guruvaram sirasd natena 'At all times, with head bowed, I venerate the
best of Gurus, . . . whose body has been purified by going to the Pithas and other
[such] sites'; 9.25: pithopapithasevandn nirmalo bhavati mdnavah \ bhraman
nimittam samlaksya nirvikalpena dhlmatah 'A man becomes pure by frequent-
ing Pithas and Upapithas. The adept should wander [there] without hesita-
tion, observing [any] signs [that may arise] without inhibition'; 26.14 . . . 18c-19:
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believed to frequent them and to be incarnate there in human women enlight-
ened from birth or in childhood; 439 classifying such women as belonging to one
pithe ksetre ca cchandohe meldpakasmasdnake || pujyapujakasambandhe amrtam
argham uttamam || . . . pratisthdhomakdlesu pithabhramanagocare || naimitte yo-
ginlpujye mantrasddhanatatksane | evam bahuvidhd jneyd tasya doso na vidyate
'In a Pitha, Ksetra, Chandoha, Melapaka, a cremation-ground, or an encounter
between worshipper and worshipped, wine is the highest guest-water. ... on the
occasion of installation ceremonies, when wandering through the Pithas, during
worship of the Yoginis occasioned by some event, and when doing the Sadhana of
a Mantra. He should know that there are a manifold [occasions] such as these [on
which he may drink wine]. He will not be at fault'. Cf Nisisamcdra, f. 10v2-3:
evam eva prakdrena ghorasddhanatatparam | ksetra paryatamdnasya sddhakasya
mahddhiye | sabdam dadati yah kascit tasya prasnam vaddmy aham 'O you of great
understanding, I shall teach [you] the requests [that should be addressed] to any [di-
vine being] who speaks to the Sadhaka as he wanders in this manner visiting the
Ksetras, intent on the Ghorasadhana'; Tantrdloka 29.40ab: iti samketdbhijho bhra-
mate pithesu yadi sa siddhlpsuh 'If a person seeking Siddhis wanders from Pitha to
Pitha knowing these signsf, the chummdh]
439 Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjika on 26.1, p. 125: ydvanti ksetropaksetrdni yo-
gapithdni tatra vyavasthitd dutyah siddhidds cumbandvaguhandd etdh viseseneti
ydvat 'Dutis are present in all the Yogapithas, the Ksetras, and Upaksetras.
These bestow Siddhi, especially through kissing and copulating [with the
Sadhaka]'; Laghusamvara 41.4c-5, reconstucted from the lemmata in the
Cakrasamvarapanjika of Bhavabhatta, the commentary Sddhananidhi of Kam-
balapada (K), this passage as incorporated in Vajraddka f. 41v2 (18.2) (V), and the
Tibetan translation (T): sarvottaresu pithddi ddkinyas tu sarvavydpini \ dese dese
*'bhijdyante (V, mngon par skye T : jdyante K) jndnayuktdh svayonisu \ ddkinyas
tdh samdkhydtdh vajramandalandyikdh 'In all these superior [sites] in various re-
gions, namely the Pithas and the rest, women are born who are endowed with
knowledge in their mother's wombs. It is these that are called Dakinis, leaders
of the Vajramandala'. Cf. Tantrasadbhdva f 115v3-4 (16.279c-280): vijhdna-m-
udayamm dsdm kathyamdnam nibodha me | plthajds cdstabhir varsaih ksetrajd
dvddasdbdikdh | dvdre sodasabhir devi yonijdh saptavimsati 'Listen to my account
of the emergence of the enlightenment of these [Yoginis]. Those born in Pithas
[achieve it] at the age of eight, those born in Ksetras at the age of twelve, [those
born in] Dvaras at the age of sixteen, and those born of [lowly] wombs at the
age of twenty-seven'. Cf. Tantrdloka 15.97cd-100b: bdhye tu tddrsdntahsthayoga-
mdrgavisdraddh || devyah svabhdvdj jdyante pitham tad bdhyam ucyate | yathd
svabhdvato mlecchd adharmapathavartinah || tatra dese niyatyettham jhdnayogau
sihitau kvacit | yathd cdtanmayo 'py eti pdpitdm taih samdgamdt || tathd pithas-
thito 'py eti jndnayogddipdtratdm 'In the outer [Pithas, Ksetras and the rest as
opposed to these transposed into the person of the worshipper] divine women are
born who are innately adept in the path of such internal meditation. Just as the
barbarians of other lands naturally follow paths outside of ordained religion, so in
some [women] in these places enlightenment and meditation-trance are naturally
present. And just as a person becomes a sinner through association with those [bar-
barians], even though he makes no effort to assimilate, so a person residing in a
Pitha becomes the beneficiary of enlightenment, meditation-trance, and [Siddhis]';
and 29.40: iti samketdbhijno bhramate pithesu yadi sa siddhipsuh \ acirdl labhate
tat tat prdpyam yad yoginivadandt 'If a person seeking Siddhis wanders from Pitha
to Pitha knowing these signs[, the chummdh], he quickly attains from the mouths
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
or other a fixed number of deity -clans (kulam) and of specifying various charac-
teristics of appearance and behaviour that enable the adept to determine these
clan-affiliations; 440 the consumption and offering of meat and alcoholic liquor in
their rites; 441 the consumption of foul substances without inhibition as an ini-
tiatory test of nondual awareness; 442 the sacrifice and consumption of the flesh
of Yoginis whatever he wishes'.
440 Laghusamvara, Patalas 16-24 (> Abhidhanottara, Samputodbhava, Samvarodaya,
Mahdmudrdtilaka, Vajraddka); and parallel passages in the Vidyapitha texts Yo-
ginlsamcdra , Tantrasadbhdva, Siddhayogesvarimata, and Picumata. For full refer-
ences see Sanderson 2001, pp. 42-43 (Table I).
441 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapahjikd, p. 497: dsu pujanlyd madyais ca mdmsair
api vajradevyah | tdh pujitd bhaktimato janasya srlherukasydbhiratim gatasya
samtustacittd varadd bhavanti 'On these [lunar days] [the women who embodyl
the Vajra goddesses should be worshipped with offerings of alcohol and flesh. When
they have been worshipped they become delighted and bestow boons on any devotee
who is attached to Heruka'; Abhidhanottara B f. 48v5- (6.50d-56a): vividhai<h>
samayottamaih || *madyair (em. : padma Cod.) ndndvidhai<s> caiva surdpdnais
tathottamaih | *virameldpakam (vlra corr. : vird Cod.) divyam yogini vivi-
dhottamd<h> || kapdlakhatvdhgakard<h> kartikddamarukottamd<h> | vddyai<r>
ndndvidhair divyai<r> bhojyabhaksyarasottamaih || vividhais cumbandlihgais
cosyalehyottamottamaih \ evamvidham smasdnam tu yaksavetddardksasaih ||
balim tatraiva ddtavyam *herukarupam (em. : heruko rupam Cod.) udvahet |
damaruvajraghantd<m> ca vddyanrtya<m> prakurvati || digvdsd mudrayd yukto
humphatkilakildyate | dlidhapadayogena jvdldmudrdm tu bhdvayet \\ mukham
dpurya samayaih 'The illustrious assembly of Viras [with Yoginis should be cele-
brated! with [the eating of] the various superior sacramental meats [detailed above],
with various wines and excellent draughts of rice-beer. The various Yoginis, holding
the skull-bowl, skull-staff, a chopping-knife, and a rattle-drum [should be gratified]
with various forms of music, the savours of excellent foods soft and hard, with kisses
and embraces, with foods to be sucked and licked. Such [should be] the cremation
ground [on this occasion]. There he should offer Bali to the Yaksas, Vetalas, and
Raksasas. He should assume the form of Heruka. He should [sound] the rattle-
drum and Vajra-bell, dance, and make music and dance. Naked together with his
consort (mudrd) he utters the syllables HUM PHAT and cries of joy. Standing in
the warrior pose he should make the Flame Mudra with his hands, having filled his
mouth with the sacramental meats'. Patala 16 of the Samvarodaya is devoted to the
preparation and use of alcoholic drinks. At its end (16.51abc) it says: madyapdnam
vind pujd homas caiva ghrtam vind | sadgurum ca vind dharmam 'There cannot be
worship without drinking wine, fire-sacrifice without clarified butter, or religious
practice without the Guru'. Cf. the scriptural passages on the indispensability of
wine in Kaula worship cited by Jayaratha on Tantrdloka 29.1-13. One of those
passages says that beer is the Goddess and wine Bhairava; surd ca paramd saktir
madyam bhairava ucyate (p. 9, line 2). Cf. Samvarodaya 16.12cd: yd surd *vajrayo-
ginyd (conj. : vajrayoginyo Ed.) yo madah sa ca herukah 'Beer is Vajrayogim and
wine is Heruka.'
442 See, e.g., Kumaracandra, Herukdbhyudayapanjikd, p. 156: tatreti mandale
'mbhojabhdjane samskrta<m> biddlavidddikam daksindbhimukhdcdryo vdso-
baddhdsyam sisyam dnlya omkdrddigdyatryd raksitvd *potahglpratipotahgl-
prasnottarakriydpurvakam (corr. : potanglm pratipotahgim Ed.) pravesya taddsye
nivesayet 'There, that is to say, before the Mandala, the Acarya, facing south,
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of human beings believed to have been reincarnated seven times for this pur-
pose (saptavartah), recognized in both traditions on the basis of similar physical
characteristics, and the use of their skulls as skull-bowls; 443 the practice of visu-
alizations in which the Sadhaka enters the body of a victim through the channels
of his vital energy (nadi), extracts his vital essences, and draws them into him-
self; 444 that of yogically raising one's consciousness out of one's body through
should sacramentalize in a skull-bowl some substance such as cat excrement. He
should then lead the blindfolded candidate forward, protect him with the Gayatri
[of Heruka] beginning with OM, and after addressing him with the word POTANGlf,
the chommd of welcome] and having received [the chommd] PRATIPOTANGI in re-
sponse, he should bring him before [the Mandala] and place that substance in his
mouth'. For the Saiva literature see the passages cited in SANDERSON 2005c, pp.
113-114, fn. 63.
443 See, e.g, Laghusamvara f. 10r3-4 (11.1-2) and 49.4-13 (49.4-8 = f. 35v5-7; 49.8-13
= bDe mchog nyung ngu, f. 244r2— 5); Abhidhanottara, Patala 63; Herukdbhyudaya,
Patala 13 (Khrag 'thung mngon par 'byung ba f. 10r7— v6); Hevajratantra 1.11.10—
11; Mahdmudrdtilaka f. 23r3-4 (12.20-21): tddrsam yatndt saptajanmdnam dnayet
| ndndpujopahdrena pujayet tarn samdhitah || tasyottamdhgam utkrtya kdrayet
padmabhdjanam | tatraiva pdtre madanam pdyayet prajhayd saha 'He should
with all effort bring such a man of seven rebirths. With concentrated mind
he should honour him with the various offering-substances. Having decapitated
him he should make the head into a skull-bowl. In that vessel he should drink
wine with his consort'; f. 51r5-v2 (24.1-3c): athdnyam *caiva (conj. : caika Cod.)
karmdkhyam pravaksydmy ddardc chrnu \yena prdsitamdtrena dsu siddhih pravar-
tate || susnigdhas ca sugandhdhgah sugandhasvedamanditah | satyavddi salajjdtmd
nivesati dram sadd | krpdparah ksdntiyutah satyavddi nirdsrayah | saptajanmd
trijanmd vd. In the Vidyapitha literature see the treatments of this topic in
Jayadrathaydmala Satka 3, Yoginlsamcdra , Kdlajhdnapatala; Tantrasadbhdva,
Adhikdra 7; and Tantrdloka 16.63-64 and Jayaratha's introduction to this passage.
444 See, e.g., Herukdbhyudayapahjikd on Herukdbhyudaya, Patala 13 p. 155: svadehdt
ddkinlh sphdrayitvd sddhye gudena pravesya navadvdrair nddimdrgena pasoh
sddhyasya *bijam (conj. : bijamjivam bijam Ed.) sukrddikam grdhayitvd niskdsya
svadehe pravesayet 'He should emanate the Dakinis from inside his body, have
them enter the victim through his anus [or any one of] the nine apertures and
passing through the channels of the victim's vital energies, seize his seed, his se-
men and other [vital essences]. Then he should have them exit [the victim] and
return [with these] into [his own body]'; on Herukdbhyudaya, Patala 42, p. 167:
athavd sddhyam dkrsya tacchukrddi pitvd bhaksayet 'Having attracted the vic-
tim he should [extract and] drink his semen and other [essences], then eat [the
flesh]'; Abhidhanottara B f. 51vl-3 (9.62-64b): vdrdhydtmabhdvena tarjanyd ndbhi
vedhayet \ ddkinyddi tu cakrasthd devya<h> *sucydkrtis (em. : sucydkrtds Cod.)
tathd || navadvdre *pravesyaitd (conj. : pravesya tarn Cod.) *vedhayed (corr. : vi-
dhayed Cod.) dhrdayapahkajam \ yoginyd hata*mdtre (conj. : mdtram Cod.) tu
pibet ksatajam uttamam || hatam ca bhaksayet so hi buddho bhavisyati ndnyathd
'By identifying with Varahi he should pierce the navel [of the victim] with his in-
dex finger [in the gesture of threat] and cause the Dakinis and other goddesses of
the Mandala to take on the form of a needle [through visualization]. When he has
made them enter [the victim in this form] through the nine apertures [of the body]
he should have them pierce through the lotus of his heart. As soon as the Yoginis
have killed him he should drink his excellent blood and eat his flesh. For it is certain
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the central channel as a means of ending one's life and ascending to a paradise
or liberation, a practice known as utkrantih in Saiva sources and thence in the
Buddhist Yoginitantras (Tib. 'pho ba); 445 the adaptation of this practice as a
that [thus] he will become a Buddha'; Mahdmdyd 2.10-14b. On the extraction of the
vital essences by such yogic means in Vidyapitha sources see, e.g., Picumata f. lOvl-
4 (3.198c-207): pravisya ca puram divyam *japtvd (em. : japtd Cod.) cdstasatam
punah || 199 avadhutatanur bhutva prayogam idam drabhet | pasubijasamdyuktam
V-kdrenaiva bheditam || 200 karsaye tu samddhistho raktaugham raktayd saha
| tena raktena mantrajnah paripurnakapdlake || 3.201 sugandhakusumair yukte
tendrgham tu praddpayet \ devindm devadevdya sarvasiddhyarthakdranam || 3.202
datte 'rghe tu prasiddhyeta trailokyam ndtra samsayah | athavd caiva ii-kdram
pasubijasamanvitam || 3.203 codayitvd uddnena avadhutatanuh *sadd (corr. :
saddh Cod.) | nirdcdrena bhdvena pasudeham viset tatah || 3.204 tatrastho
grahanam kurydt bhutdndm mantracintakah | apdnena tatah sighram svadeham
pravised budhah || 3.205 pancabhutdni cdkrsya pujayita kapdladhrk | raktena
prathamd<m> devi<m> dvitiyd<m> mdmsabhaksane || 3.206 trtlyd tvak-ca-bhaksd
tu caturthi medabhaksand | snehena tarpayed devam pancavyomdntasamsthitam
|| 3.207 etat te paramam guhyam yogesindm tu pujanam | siddhyartham caiva
mantrlndm khecaratvajigisundm 'After entering before the celestial Mandala he
should repeat the Mantra eight hundred times. When [in this way] he has become
one whose body has transcended all duality he should commence the following pro-
cedure. In deep meditation he should draw out a stream of the [victim's] blood with
the [Mantra of] Rakta conjoined with the Victim-seed with u as the [final] vowel.
The Mantra adept should place fragrant flowers in a skull, fill it with that blood,
and present it as the guest-offering to the goddesses and Bhairava as the means
of accomplishing all Siddhis. Alternatively he should propel the letter U combined
with the Victim-seed up [along the central channel] with the ascending vital energy
and in the state that transcends convention he should enter the victim's body. Once
within it the adept should take hold of the gross elements [of the victim's body]
while meditating on the Mantra and then swiftly return into his own body by draw-
ing in his breath. When he has drawn them into himself the Kapalika (kapdladhrk)
should worship [his deities with them]. He worships the first goddess by offering
her the blood, and the second by offering her the flesh to eat. The third eats the
skin and the fourth the fat. With the fluid of the body he should gratify the god
[Kapalisabhairava] who resides beyond the five voids [along the central channel].
This worship is the highest secret of the Yogesvaris. [I have taught it] to you so that
Mantra adepts that seek to master the state of the Khecara may succeed'. See also
Tantrasadbhdva, ff. 181v5-182r2 (27.1-10); Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 3, f. 184r6
(Yoginisamcdra 5.40): yasmdtra karmano siddhi raktdkarsanapurvikd \ tarpanam
devatdndm ca 'For in this [system] the success of the ritual and the gratification of
the deities requires the extraction of [the victim's] blood'; Tantrdloka 16.35c-51b,
describing the yogic process in detail; and Netratantra 20, which describes how
Yoginis extract life-essences from their victims in this way in order to offer them up
to Mahabhairava and thereby liberate them.
445 Catuspitha ff. 68v-70r (Guhyapltha, Patala 3) and Bhavabhatta thereon
(Catusplthanibandha ff. 50v4-52v7); Vajraddka ff. 50r7-52r3 (Patala 21);
Samputodbhava ff. 78r5-80r6 (Kalpa 8, Prakarana 3); Samvarodaya 5.67-69 and
19.35c-47. In Tibetan tradition this practice is one of the nd ro chos drug or Six
Teachings of Naropa (956-1040), commonly known in English as his Six Yogas.
These have been the object of extensive Tibetan exegesis. For English transla-
tions of some of these works, including the Chos drug gi man ngag attributed to
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The Saiva Age
means of assisting the dying and the dead — we have seen a ritualized realiza-
tion of this in the Mantranaya's funeral ceremony taught by Padmasrimitra and
Sunyasamadhi 446 — ; and the practice of transferring one's consciousness out of
one's body to pass into and animate a corpse (parakdyapravesah). 447
Nor is the adoption of the Vidyapitha's practices restricted to externals. It
also extended into the domain of Yoga. For one of the most striking features that
distinguish the Yoginltantras from the Yogatantras and indeed from all that pre-
ceded them in the history of Buddhism is that they based their inner practice
on the theory that the body is pervaded and sustained by a network of energy
channels (nddi), variously numbered, with three pre-eminent: two vertical lat-
eral channels, lalana and rasand, and a hidden third extending between up the
centre of the body to the head, called avadhutl or canddll, with Cakras located
along its course, which was to be awakened and perceived as the means of access
to the bliss (sahajdnandah, mahdsukham) of enlightened awareness. This Yoga
of meditation on the channels of the vital energy and the Cakras is not found
in the transitional Sarvabuddhasamdyoga 448 nor indeed in the Laghusamvara,
Tilopa, the sNyan rgyud rdo rje'i tshig rkang attributed to Naropa, and the Nd ro
chos drug gi 'khrid rim yid ches gsum Idan of Tsong kha pa (1357-1419) (Gsung
'bum, vol. ta, pp. 401-532) see Mullin 1996 and 1997. For Tsong kha pa's detailed
treatment of this practice of ascent from the body see Mullin 1996, pp. 209-215.
His sources are those Tantras listed here: the Catuspitha (and Bhavabhatta's com-
mentary), the Vajradaka, the Samputa (= Samputodbhava), and the Samvarodaya.
Mullin translates the Tibetan rendering of these titles into English. He identifies
his 'Mystic Kiss Tantra' as the Caturyoginisamputa. It is in fact the Samputa, the
work that also appears in this translation as the Sambhuta Tantra, reproducing a
faulty Tibetan transcription of the same title. Tsong kha pa notes that this prac-
tice of ascent from one's body (utkrdntih) is a unique feature of the highest (bla na
med) Buddhist Tantra class (Mullin 1996, p. 209). That is so within the Buddhist
Tantras; but the source of the practice is the Saiva tradition, whose texts have al-
ways placed a great emphasis on it both in the Atimarga and in the Mantramarga;
see Pdsupatasutra 5.30—40; Pampdmdhdtmya 11.54—71 (explaining that pas-
sage); Skandapurdna-Ambikdkhanda, Adhydya 182; Rauravasutrasamgraha,
Patala 9; Sdrdhatrisatikdlottara 11.13— 19b; Dvisatika-Kdlottara ff. 2v9— 3r6; Tray-
odasasatika-Kdlottara ff. 30r9-31r7; Kirana, Patala 59; Matahgapdramesvara,
Carydpdda, Patala 9; Picumata, Patala 100; Mdlinlvijayottara 17.25-33;
Tantrasadbhava f. 36rll-vl0 (9.294-321); Tantraloka 28.292-302; and, in
Java/Bali, Jndnasiddhdnta, chapters 3, 5-7, and 20.
446 See here pp. 126-128. For the Saiva adaptation of this practice as a means of liberat-
ing the dying see, e.g., Tantraloka 19.1—56 (sadya-utkrdntidiksd utkrdmani diksa).
447 Vajradaka f. 51rl-3 (21.19-22). In the Saiva literature see Nisvdsatattvasamhitd
f. 22v4 (Nisvdsamula 7.20), (>) Svacchanda 7.328c-329b; Picumata f. llv (3.228-
232b); (5.95-101); f. 356r4-v3 (96.19-35); Tantrasadbhava ff. 181v5-182r3 (27.1-
11); Mdlinivijayottara 21.9-19; and Tantraloka 28.294-300. This practice too is one
of the 'Six Yogas of Naropa' (nd ro chos drug); see Tsong kha pa, op. cit. translated
in Mullin 1996, pp. 215-216.
448 See also Tanaka 1996, p. 272.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
but it is much developed in the latter's ancillary scriptures such as the Vajradaka
and Samvarodaya, and elsewhere in the Yoginitantras, notably in the Hevajra,
the Samputodbhava, the Mahamudratilaka, and the Kalacakra. 449
The elements of this model are 'purifed through equation' (visuddha-) with
Buddhist soteriological factors, either newly acquired, such as the twenty-four
sacred sites or long established in the Mahayana, such as the three bodies of
a Buddha (nirmdnakdyah, sambhogakayah , and dharmakayah), equated with
the three principal channels, and Means (updyah) and Wisdom {prajhd), whose
co-functioning (yuganaddhavdhitd) is the way to liberation, equated with the
lateral pair. 450 But the basic conception is derived from the Yoga of the Saivas in
general and the Sakta Saivas in particular.
The Incorporation of Text-passages from the VidyapItha. In the
light of this evidence of the pervasive similarities between the Yoginitantras and
the Saivism of the VidyapItha, and considering the fact that these similarities set
the Yoginitantras apart from all earlier forms of Buddhism, the reader will not
be surprised to know that there is also evidence that this tradition incorporated
That the Yoga of the energy channels was one of the principal features that distin-
guished the Yoginitantras was asserted by the learned of the Mantranaya itself; see
Sraddhakaravarman cited here on p. 239; also Mkhas grub rje, rGyud spyi, p. 256,
11. 6-7: phung khams skye mched kyi mam dag gtso bor ston pa's rgyud yin na pha
rgyud | rtsa'i mam dag gtso bor ston pa ma rgyud 'If a Tantra principally teaches the
purification of the Skandhas, Dhatus, and Ayatanas it is a Father Tantra. A Mother
Tantra principally teaches the purification of the energy channels'. In this pas-
sage the distinction is between the esoteric Yogatantras (Mahayogatantras, Yogot-
taratantras) headed by the Guhyasamaja and the Yoginitantras or Yoganiruttara-
tantras exemplified by the Tantras of Samvara and Hevajra, the two divisions of
what the Tibetans called bla med kyi rgyud 'the unsurpassed Tantra [class]'. Mkhas
grub rje's tradition rejects this criterion for distinguishing between the two divi-
sions on the grounds that there are Yoginitantras (Mother Tantras) that also teach
the purification of the Skandhas and the rest. That is true. We find this, for exam-
ple, in the Hevajra (1.7.12; 1.9.6-9, 13-14; 2.2.31-36) and the Abhidhanottara (e.g.
B ff. 20v5-21rl; f. 26r3; f. 36r3-v6; f. 51r3-4; ff. 69v2-70rl). But that is because the
second-wave Yoginitantras sought to encompass the tradition of the Guhyasamaja
by incorporating many of its elements. He does not, we may note, support his argu-
ment by pointing to the presence of the purification of the energy channels in any
Father Tantra. From the historian's point of view the distinction that he rejects
remains accurate in spite of his objections, van Schaik (2008, p. 50) has noted the
absence of material on the manipulation of the internal energies in the Dunhuang
manuscripts, which represent Tantric Buddhism up to about the middle of the ninth
century.
For a comprehensive listing of 'purifying equations' for the principal channels and
four Cakras (the Nirmanacakra at the root of the navel, the Dharmacakra in the
heart, the Sambhogacakra in the throat, and the Mahasukhacakra in the head) see
Jnanodayatantra, p. 6, 11. 1-14 (the four Cakras), and p. 6, 1. 20-p. 7, 1. 9 (the three
channels).
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The Saiva Age
and adapted much textual material from the Saiva scriptures in the process of
producing its own.
This is particularly evident in the case of the Laghusamvara and its
satellites. I have reported and tabulated elsewhere correspondences with
passages in five Saiva scriptures: (1) the Yoginisamcara of the third Satka of
the Jayadrathayamala, 451 (2) the short redaction of the Siddhayogesvarlmata —
a much longer redaction, known to Abhinavagupta, has not come down to
us — , (3) the Tantrasadbhava, (4) the Picumata (IBrahmayamala), and (5) the
Nisisamcara, all of which are texts of the Vidyapitha. There are also a few
correspondences with earlier texts of the Buddhist Mantranaya; 452 but unlike
those the Laghusamvara's parallels with the Vidyapitha are not short passages
of one or two verses but detailed and continuous expositions that run in two
cases over several chapters, amounting in all to some 200 verses out of a total of
451 The Yoginisamcara, though it comes to us as part of the Jayadrathayamala, has
very probably been incorporated from another source. This is evident from the reg-
ister of its Sanskrit, from its style, and from its content. This source may be a text
closely related to the lost Yoginijalasamvara. For it claims at its beginning to be
about to explain what has already been taught in that Tantra. Jayadrathayamala,
Satka 3, f. 169r8 (Yoginisamcara l.l-6b): devy uvaca \\pura tu samvare tantre yad
uktam paramesvara | Han na (em. : tatra Cod.) jhatam maya deva guhyatantrasya
vistarat || 2 katham sa bhairavo dehas tvayi deva mahabalah \ katham devyo yajanty
enam kulas tasam kati smrtah || 3 katham kramam mahagudha<m> caram tasam
katham vibho \ carusiddhih katham tasam etan me bruhi vistaram || 4 evam akarnya
devesyavadandmburuhacyutam \ vacomrtam mahddevo bhuyo vacanam abravit ||
5 sadhu sadhu mahabhage sarvajhanarthabhajane | maharahasyam atulam yo-
ginicaram uttamam || 6 pravaksyami samasena srnusv' ekagramanasa 'The goddess
said: Paramesvara, I have not understood the teaching that you gave of old in the
Samvaratantra, because of the great length of [that] esoteric text. What is the
nature, O god, of your mighty embodiment as Bhairava? How do the goddesses
worship it? How many are their families held to be? How is the most secret proce-
dure of their worship? How, O lord, do they rotate? And how is one to obtain the
sacramental substances for them? Explain this to me at length. Having heard thus
the nectar in the form of words that fell from the lotus of the mouth of the goddess
Mahadeva replied and said: I congratulate you, illustrious and worthy receptacle of
the teachings of omniscience. I shall concisely teach you the incomparable great se-
cret, the unsurpassed Rotation of the Yoginis. Listen with attentive mind'. The last
part of the first chapter of the Yoginisamcara gives an account of the many classes
of female supernaturals as the constituents of the body mentioned in the list of
questions and ends with the words: ity evam yoganiyamam yoginijala*samvare
(corr. : samcare D) | yathotpannam tu kathitam *niyogam (em. : niryogam D) srnu
sampratam (D f. 172v4-5, 1.72c-f) 'Thus I have explained to you the arising of the
order of the pantheon of powers as [taught] in the Yoginijalasamvara. Hear now
its application(s)'. See also D f. 199v6-7 (7.124c-125b): uktani ydni karmdni yogini-
jalasamvare || ayutam japtva tu sarvani karoty eva hi lilaya After repeating the
Mantra ten thousand times he easily accomplishes all the rites that I have taught
in the Yoginijalasamvara'.
452 See here p. 163.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
about 700 with some prose equivalent in length to about 80 more. They teach
the characteristics by which the initiate may recognize women as belonging
to various classes of Yogini, Dakini, and Lama, and vocabularies of special
words and gestures (chommdh) for communicating with them when encountered
(Patalas 15-24), the rules (samaydh) that bind initiates as they engage in
post-initiatory caryd (Patalas 26-29), the system of Pithas and other sacred
pilgrimage centres for wandering ascetics engaged in this practice (Patala 41),
and the characteristics of the ideal sacrificial victim known as a saptdvartah or
saptajanmd (Patala 49). 453
These parallels demonstrate a high degree of overlap with the Saiva
Vidyapitha in the parts of the text and its satellites that deal with the religious
discipline (samaydcdrah) of the adherents of this form of Buddhism. Still
lacking, however, was evidence of textual dependence in those parts that deal
with that discipline's ritual core. But that gap can now be closed. For since
publishing those results I have located further evidence in what survives of the
Vidyapitha's scriptures that this corpus was also the source of substantial parts
of the Laghusamvara's instruction in this domain. The areas of prescription
in which this textual dependence has emerged are (1) the daily worship of the
'Kulika' prescribed in the first chapter of the Laghusamvara, (2) the ceremony
of initiation before the Mandala through which a candidate becomes qualified
and obliged to practice the Tantra's rites and observance, which is taught
from the end of the first chapter to the beginning of the fourth; and (3) the
ritual procedures for supernatural effects, mostly hostile sorcery, that form a
considerable part of the work and take the form of fire-sacrifices (homah), and
the use of the Mantras and the name of the target (sddhyandma) to empower
substances in various ways and combinations to bring about these results. These
new parallels are as follows:
1. The worship of the Kulika: Laghusamvara 1.4-7b (< Herukdbhyudaya
15.6-10) < Picumata 84.9c-16.
2. The initiation ceremony: Laghusamvara 1.15-4.1 < 8.3-28 of the Yo-
ginlsamcdra.
3. The ritual procedures for supernatural effects:
a Laghusamvara, Patala 34 < Picumata 41.1-3, 49.3c-4c, 41.4-7b,
41.12abc, and 41.15d.
b Laghusamvara, Patala 35 < Picumata 26.1-2b, 26.41c-44.
453 p or m y tabulation of these correspondences see Sanderson 2001, pp. 41-47. See
also Sanderson 1985, p. 214, note 106; Sanderson 1988, pp. 678-679; and
Sanderson 1994, esp. pp. 92-96.
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The Saiva Age
c Laghusamvara, Patala 36 < Picumata 26.45c-48b.
d Laghusamvara, Patala 37 < Picumata 29. lab, 30.1, 29.35, 29.38-48b,
29.50 [cf. 20.56-57], 29.61ab.
e Laghusamvara, Patala 50, up to v. 19 (the point at which the earlier
redaction of the text ends) < Picumata 5.17-18, 5.23c-28, 5.63, 5.67,
5.70.
Comparison of the textual parallels reveals that it is the Cakrasamvara cor-
pus that has adopted and adapted the Saiva sources rather than the other way
round. For the Buddhist versions abound in instances in which it can be seen
that Saiva material has been misunderstood, crudely, artificially, and incom-
pletely modified, or rendered contextually incongruous. The Saiva versions, on
the other hand, seem to me to be entirely free of signs of textual dependence on
Buddhist originals.
Before proceeding to demonstrate this through the presentation and analy-
sis of examples I wish first to address an objection that has been raised against
my conclusion. 454 I do so before my analysis because that objection, if it were
valid, would block in advance the force of all my evidence, being based not on
contrary analyses of particular parallels but on a perceived characteristic of all
the materials I have identified. This characteristic is that the Buddhist versions
are less clear in meaning, less grammatically correct. By concluding that the
direction of redaction is from Saiva materials to the Buddhist in spite of this
characteristic I am held to have overlooked or violated the textual critic's maxim
lectio difficilior potior 'The more difficult reading is to be preferred'. This maxim
means that when one is confronted by two readings, both of which are plausible,
one should prefer that which is less easily explained as the result of the alter-
ation, accidental or deliberate, of the other, provided there is a clearly established
line of transmission between the sources of the divergent readings. Thus, it is
implied, the less clear and more incorrect Buddhist versions should be judged to
have preceded the clearer and more correct Saiva versions on the grounds that it
is conceivable that a Saiva redactor revised a deficient Buddhist version but not
that a Buddhist spoiled a superior Saiva version. 455
What exactly the concept of lack of clarity is thought to cover in this argu-
454 Davidson 2002, p. 386, n. 105; and Gray 2005, p. 8, n. 19.
455 In fact it is not clear whether these authors think that the application of this princi-
ple means that the Buddhist versions cannot be secondary or only that it less likely
that they are. The second alternative alone would accord with a more fundamental
principle of textual criticism, namely that there are no hard-and-fast rules because
every textual problem must be regarded as possibly unique (HOUSMAN 1921, pp.
68-69).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ment is unclear; but I assume that the authors had in mind not merely gram-
matical deviations from the Paninian standard of high scholarship, since those
are seldom difficult to understand, being characteristic of a particular register
of the language, but also and principally lack of clarity in meaning caused by
syntactical incoherence and the like, which is indeed a conspicuous defect in the
Buddhist versions. Indeed they are sometimes barely intelligible, as is revealed
by fact that the commentators confronted by these passages offer widely diver-
gent but equally arbitary interpretations. 456
Now, the objection that a version which is less clear in this sense must have
preceded one that is freer of these defects, proceeds from a serious misunder-
standing of how the rule of the lectio difficilior is to be applied. Firstly, like all
other 'rules' of textual criticism, it should never be put to work mechanically and
in advance, without the application of thought to the weighing of probabilities in
each case; and secondly, it should never be invoked to give precedence to readings
that are grammatically defective, incoherent, or contextually awkward. 457 Lack
of clarity is hardly likely to the fault of the original framers of the text-passages,
who, after all, probably knew what they wanted to say in whatever register of
Sanskrit they chose to adopt. It is much more likely to be the result of incompe-
tence and/or carelessness on the part of Buddhist redactors who had difficulty in
understanding the Saiva texts they were cannibalizing.
The secondary status of the Buddhist versions is also apparent in another
deficiency: their greater metrical irregularity. In principle that might be ex-
plained either as the result of the Saivas' having polished the Buddhist versions
or as the result of indifference to the preservation of metrical form on the part of
Buddhist redactors as they adapted metrically correct Saiva materials. But the
latter explanation is much to be preferred. For, as we shall see, metrical irreg-
ularity is particularly noticeable in the Buddhist versions at those places where
the imprint of Buddhism is apparent. 458
Let us assume, however, that there are indeed readings in the Buddhist ver-
sions which do not derive from the Saiva parallels that I have identified. Would
these not refute my conclusion that the Buddhist versions are secondary? No. For
456 See here p. 216.
457 This point has been made against Davidson and Gray by Szanto (2008b, p. 218).
On the principle invoked here, that a 'more difficult reading' must be plausible, see
West 1973, p. 51: "When we choose the 'more difficult reading' . . . we must be sure
that it is in itself a plausible reading. The principle should not be used in support
of dubious syntax, or phrasing that it would not have been natural for the author to
use. There is an important difference between a more difficult reading and a more
unlikely reading"; Chadwick 1957, p. 255: "The principle lectio difficilior potior
does not extend to nonsense, . . . ".
458 See here p. 207.
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The Saiva Age
the inference that they would rests on the assumption that I consider that the
Saiva text-passages redacted into the Buddhist versions were exactly those seen
in these parallels. In fact I hold that the collation of these parallels with the Bud-
dhist passages demonstrates that the former are, in most cases at least, closely
related variants of the passages on which the Buddhist redactors drew, and that
these passages were accessed in what were probably earlier and less elaborate
redactions of the works in which I have found the parallels, or else in texts of
the same corpus which are now out of reach, such as the Yoginijalasamvara,
the Sarvavirasamayoga, the long version of the Siddhayogesvarlmata, and the
Pancdmrta. 459 For what survives in the manuscript collections of India and
Nepal is only a part of what once existed, as we learn both from citations of
other texts in the works of learned Saiva commentators and from the surviv-
ing scriptural redactions themselves, which, when listing the canon of texts to
which they belong, mention many works, such as those mentioned above, which
have not survived or await discovery 460 My argument, then, is not that these
Saiva parallels are the direct sources of the Buddhist versions but only that the
Saiva parallels are close enough to the Buddhist versions to reveal the direction
459 On these sources see Sanderson 2007, pp. 234-237, footnotes 15-16, and 21-22.
460 See, for example, the list of Tantras 'venerated by the circle of Yoginis'
given in the first chapter of the Yoginisamcdra as sources on the matters it
covers (Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 3, ff. D 170v2-171r3 [1.29-42b]): mula-
tantram kubjika ca yoginijdlasamvaram | *attasambarandmdnam (ABCE :
attasasvarandgdnam D) hattadhulis tathdpard || 1.30 caldksaram mahdtantram
visvakrlddvatdrakam | mahdmdyottaram ndma sarvaviramatam tathd |
1.31 alamgrdsam mahdtantram *kuhcikodghdtam (em. : kruhcikodghdtam
ABCDE) eva ca | siddhacakram prakdsam ca patam turam Haihdparam (em :
yathdparam ABCDE) || 1.32 siddhakaulam mahdjdlam tathd bhairavagahvaram
| kulagahvarandmdnam kuladdmarabhairavam || 1.33 jhdhkdrakulam atyugram
tathd siddhdmatam subham \ kdcandmatam evdnyat kusumdlikasamjnitam || 1.34
siddhayogesvaritantram. trikasdrottaram tathd | picutantram. mahdraudram
vimalocchusmasamjhitam | 1.35 khadgardvanandmdnam tathdnyam taka-
mandalam (em. : takamandanam ABCDE) | karoti mundamdldkhyam
siracchedam bhaydnakam || 1.36 hdhdrdvottaram tantram krodham unmat-
tabhairavam \ ruruydmalam atyugram tathdnyam rudraydmalam \\ 1.37
umdydmalam evdnyad gauriydmalam eva ca | skandaydmalam evdnyam
tathd bhairavaydmalam || 1.38 visnuydmalam eva sydn nandiydmalam eva ca
| sukraydmalam evdnyac chakraydmalam eva ca || 1.39 kapdlisamatam ndma
meghanddisvaram tathd | harnsayamalandmanam candogram hdtakesvaram ||
1.40 mahdvdmesvaritantram lahkesimatam uttamam \ lampatddyam ca raktddyam
tathd hadddmatam param || 1.41 durvdsamatam evdnyam evamddyd hy anekasah
| ete tantravardh proktd yoginicakravanditdh || 1.42 esu tantravaresv eva tdsdm
cdram vicdritam. The great majority of these works appear to have been lost.
Works that have survived with titles listed here are distinguished by bold charac-
ters. Works here that are known only by citations or as loci of attribution in early
colophons have been underlined.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
of dependence. It is possible, therefore, that any 'more difficult readings' were in-
herited from this earlier stratum in the development of the Vidyapitha; and this
mere possibility is sufficient to invalidate the inference of the priority of the Bud-
dhist versions. If I am mistaken in my conclusion that the Buddhist versions are
secondary that will have to be demonstrated by presenting a persuasive contrary
analysis of the relationship between the Saiva and Buddhist versions based on a
detailed examination of the particulars I have identified. General arguments of
this kind, which attempt to settle the matter in advance without engaging with
the specifics of the parallels, will not suffice. 461
Having dealt with this objection I can now turn to the evidence. In advance
of a more thoroughgoing demonstration I consider a few passages here that re-
veal that the Buddhist redactors were using Saiva materials and enable us to
see how they did so.
I have mentioned the entry into the Cakrasamvara corpus of two lists of
Sakta sacred sites. That found in the Vajradaka, ff. 42rl-43v3 (18.10-60) cor-
responds very closely in the Vidyapitha to Nisisamcara, ff. 16v-19v (4.6b-5.11),
both in content and wording. The passage lists twenty-four sacred sites and
identifies for each its presiding goddess, the high Tantric goddess to whose
family she is assigned, her weapon (dyudham), the site's sacred tree, and
a guardian Bhairava (ksetrapalah). 462 The version in the Vajradaka leaves
461 The same applies to a line of defence that objects to my conclusion in a manner that
renders even a non-specific engagement with the parallels unnecessary. Confronted
with the information that such parallels have been claimed some are inclined to
respond with the question "Why would Buddhists have drawn on Saiva sources?"
The question is purely rhetorical and somewhat plaintive, implying that since the
authors of these texts were Buddhists they would surely not have drawn on non-
Buddhist scriptures. The inference has no force at all, because it invokes a notion
of the nature of Buddhism and consequently of what Buddhists can or cannot have
done that is derived from texts other than those of this corpus. No amount of evi-
dence that other Buddhist scriptures were free of dependence on non-Buddhist texts
can counter evidence that these Buddhist scriptures were not.
462 Closely related to the Nisisamcara text is a version seen in Kubjikamata 22.23-
46, which lacks one of its elements, namely the specification of the high Tantric
goddesses to whose families these local goddesses belong. Another, somewhat di-
vergent and giving the sites alone and the points on the body that should be
empowered by them through nyasah, appears in the Vidyapitha's Madhavakula
(Jayadrathayamala, Satka 4, f. 124rl-5 [Kalikakule pujanirnayah, vv. 16-22 (fol-
lowed in Tantraloka 29.59-63 (TA): parts of a Kashmirian redaction of the text
are cited in Tantralokaviveka on these verses (TAV)]; the procedure of the nyasah
is put in Paddhati form in Kalikulakramdrcana, f. 22r5-v5 [KKK1): attahasam
sikhasthane caritram ca karandhrake | *kulagiryam (corr. : kullagirye Cod.) priye
*karne (corr. : karnnam Cod.) *jayantya (corr. : jayamtya Cod.) *uttare punah
(conj. [cf. jayantlpithapada vamakarne KKK] : uttaroyane Cod.) | 17 *ujjayanya
(corr. : ujjayanyam Cod.) tu bhriimadhye prayagam vaktramadhyagam | varanasl
tu hrdaye sripitham skandhayor dvayoh | 18 kanthadese tu virajam *hy erundya
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The Saiva Age
this Saiva pantheon and its ancillaries intact, the only major deviation being
that it has four sites that differ from those in the Nisisamcara. Particularly
striking in the Vajradaka's version is not only the fact that it transmits all the
details of this distinctively Saiva religious map, which includes such well-known
deities as Mahalaksmi of Kollagiri (Kolhapur), Hetuka[bhairava] of Devikotta,
and Vettada/Vetala of Nagara (Pataliputra/Kusumapura), 463 but also that it
preserves the classification of the goddesses of these sites as belonging to one
or other of the families of Rakta, Karali, Candaksi, Mahocchusma, Karala,
Dantura, Bhimavakta, and Mahabala, information that is revelant only in the
Saiva context, since these are the four Guhyakas and their attendants that form
the inner retinue of Kapalisabhairava and Canda Kapalini in the Picumata of
the Vidyapitha 464 and are not encountered to my knowledge in any Buddhist
(em. [cf. erundiplthapada | udare KKK] : herumdya Cod.) udare priye | *alampuram
(Cod. KKK : alipuram TAV : hold TA) ndbhimadhye *samdohailapuram priye
(Cod. [cf. elapurapithapada medasi KKK] : kandordhve paramesvari TAV) | 19
kandddhdre tu gokarnam *marudesam (corr. : maruddesam Cod. : marukosam TA)
bhagdntare | atha medhropari bhadre jhatavyam sddhakena tu | 20 daksine *sak-
thni (TAV : sakti Cod.) *nagaram (corr. : nagare Cod.) *vdme sydt (TAV : vamesyah
Cod.) *paundravardhanam (corr. TAV : paudravarddhane Cod.) | vdmaskandhe
purastlram *prsthapuram (Cod. [cf. prsthapurapithapada daksaskandhe KKK] :
elapuram TAV) tu daksine | 21 *kudyakesl (TAV : udyakesT Cod.) * jdnumadhye
(Cod. [cf. kundakesipithapdda jdnumadhye KKK] : daksajdnau TAV) *soparam
(Cod. : sopanam TA TAV) *cottare (em. [=TAV] : cantare Cod.) smrtam \ *ksirika
(corr. : kslrikam Cod.) *vamahaste (Cod. [cf. ksTrikapithapada vamahaste KKK]
tu *mayapurya (corr. : mayapuryan Cod.) tu daksine | 22 amratakesvaram gulphe
vame rajagrham subham | padadhare tu brahmani kalagnyavadhidharaki.
463 rp^g name f yjg goddegg of this city is Vettavasim in the Nisisamcara (f. 17v
[4.43]; em. : vettavasim Cod.) Vetrakacchanivasa in the Kubjikamata (22.37c; em.
[MSS E and K] : cetrakacchanivasa BCDJG : caitrakacchanivasa Ed.), and Vetra
in the Kdlikakulakramdrcana (em. : vatrd Cod.). In the Buddhist version we see
Vettada in the Vajradaka (em. : vettaheti Cod.) and Vetada in the Dakarnava. The
Vdsavadatta of Subandhu (p. 16, 1. 2 to p. 17, 1. 4) independently identifies her as
'the Katyayayam called Vetala': kusumapuram . . . yatra . . . katyayani vetalabhidhd.
We therefore have two phonetically related but semantically unrelated names, one
meaning the goddess 'who dwells in the thicket of reeds (vetra-)' and the other 'the
female Vetala', vettada- and vetada- being well-attested variant forms of vetala-.
I propose that the latter evolved from the former through a vernacular synonym
*Vettala corresponding to Sanskrit Vetralaya. Cf. Panjabi and Hindi aid from Skt.
alayah; Panjabi sivala, Maithili and Hindi siwald from Skt. sivalayah; and Panjabi
dewala from Skt. devalayah. The Mahayanist Mahdsamnipatasutra's Candragarb-
hasutra, preserved only in a Chinese translation made by Narendrayasas in 566,
gives in its 18th chapter (Mahasamnipatasutra, chapter 55) a listing of the pre-
siding deities of 55 places extending from India through Central Asia to China
(55a-58a [prose]; 59a-60a [verse resume]). The name of the guardian goddess of
Pataliputra is said there to be Bi-lu-chi or Bi-lu-tuo (Levi 1905b, p. 265). It is
tempting to see this as a deformation of the same name caused by an inadvertent
inversion of the last two syllables. But I am not qualified to judge the matter.
464 See, e.g., Picumata f. 19r2— 3 (4.254c— 256): guhyakddyam tato vaksye namato
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
context outside this text-passage and its derivatives. Thus, for example, the
Nisisamcara (4.10-13), covering Kolagiri (Kolhapur) and Jayanti, reads:
10 kolagirya<m> mahalaksml karalayonisambhava \
kdlarupd sthitd devi dandahastd subhisand ||
11 tasmin ksetre sthitd devi parvatagrasamasrita |
agniketi ca vikhydtah ksetrapdlo mahdtape ||
12 jayantya<m> danturayoni<r> jvalamukheti visrutd \
khadgahastd sthitd devi sarvasattvabhayamkari ||
13 tasmin ksetre sthitd devi nimbavrksasamdsritd |
mahapreteti vikhydtas tasmin ksetre mahdbalah \\
ff. 16v4-17r3
13a tasmin ksetre corr. : tasmim ksetrd Cod.
and the corresponding passage in the Vajradaka (18.12-14) reads:
12 kollagiryam mahalaksml karalayonisambhava \
kardlarupd sthitd devi vikrtd cdtibhisand ||
13 tasmin nagare sthitd cogrd parvatagrasamasrita | 465
varnatas tathd || 255 raktd kardlT *canddkhyd (corr. : canddkhydm Cod.)
mahocchusmd tathaiva ca | ucchusmatantre ndmdni guhyakdndm na samsayah
|| 256 kardld danturd caiva bhimavaktrd mahdbald \ guhyakdnucard hy etdh
kimkaryo 'nukramena tu 'Next I shall explain the [retinue] that begins with the
Guhyakas, giving their names and colours. In [this scripture,] the Ucchusmatantra,
the names of the Guhyakas are, without doubt, Rakta, Karali, Candakhya
(/Candaksi), and Mahocchusma. Karala, Dantura, Bhimavaktra, and Mahabala:
these are respectively their attendant servants'. The Ucchusmatantra is the
Picumata itself (f. 185r4: ity ucchusmatantre picumate nddisamcdrapatalah sat-
trimsatimah). The four secondary goddesses that attend the Guhyakas are also
called their Dutis. I have not emended canddkhydm, because although Candaksi is
the standard form of the name there are several other places in this text in which
the goddess is called Candakhya.
465 Both the Nisisamcara and the Vajradaka read parvatagrasamasrita (rDo rje mkha'
gro f. 49r7: ri yi rise mor brten te gnas) 'on a hilltop' here. This is surpris-
ing because what we expect is a reference to the site's sacred tree, as in the
parallel expression nimbavrksasamdsritd 'by a Nimba tree' in the next verse.
It is tempting to emend, therefore to parpatdgrasamdsritd 'in front of a Box
[tree]', since this is so close to the transmitted reading. However, two consid-
erations oppose this: (1) in a passage on Kollagiri in the Picumata (f. 7r3-4
[3.84-87]), which agrees in giving Mahalaksml as the goddess, Agnika as the
Ksetrapala, and dandah as the weapon, the sacred tree of the site is said to be a
Vaibhitaka (84 daksinena likhen mantri mahdghoram bhaydvaham \ mahdraudram
smasdnam tu ndmnd kollagiri tathd || 85 tatra dandam samdlikhya madhye
vaibhltakadrumam \ ndndvrksasamdkirnam kolldgiryoparis tathd \\ 86 citibhih
prajvalantibhih samantdt parivdritam \ diksus caiva vidiksus ca bahis tasya
mahdyase \\ 87 tasyddhastdl likhet padmam astapatram sakarnikam \ agnikam
ksetrapdlam tu mahalaksmibhaydvaham); and (2) in the Kubjikdmata's parallel
version of this material Mahalaksml is described as 'residing on a hill' (22.25: ag-
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The Saiva Age
agnimukheti vikhyatah ksetrapalo vardnanah \
lAjvalamukhiti vikhyata \
khadgahasta sthitd ghord nimbavrksasamdsritd |
ksetrapalo mahdkdyo mahavrateti visrutah \\
f. 42r2-4
13c vikhyatah corr. : vikhyata Cod. 14b khadgahasta sthitd em. : khadga-
hastasthitd Cod.
Moreover, this Buddhist parallel provides additional evidence of the direc-
tion of redaction through the state of verse 14. For it lacks the first quarter,
which contained information vital to the coherence of the passage, namely the
name of the site over which the goddess Jvalamukhi presides and the goddess of
the Picumata to whose family she is assigned. As a result of this error, commit-
ted either by a Buddhist redactor or inherited from a defective Saiva manuscript,
what was originally the second quarter has become the first. Aware that the met-
rical cadences required at the end of first and second quarters of a verse in this
metre are different the redactor has removed the resulting metrical blemish by
substituting the synonym vikhyata for visruta. But this was not enough, since
to mend the unmetrical mess that resulted from the omission he would have had
also to recast the quarters that follow. This was evidently beyond his competence
or required more effort than he thought necessary. The result is a verse with
five quarters (a, a, b, a, b) or one and a half verses of which the first half verse
consists of a prior quarter without the posterior quarter required to complete it.
As for the four sites found in the Vajradaka's version but not in the
Nisisamcara, namely Uddiyana, Jalandhara, Tibet, and Malava, there can be
little doubt that the presence of the third is the work of a Buddhist redactor,
since Tibet had no religious significance for the Saivas but much for the Bud-
dhists from the eight century onwards. As for the other three, their presence
might be explained by assuming that the direct source of the Vajradaka's
passage was not the Nisisamcara as we find it in its single surviving Nepalese
manuscript but rather a closely related redaction either within another version
of the Nisisamcara, such as we find in the paraphrases and citations of a work of
this name in the Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta and Jayaratha's commentary, 466
nikena samopetdm dandahastdm nagaukasam \ koldgirye mahalaksmim naumi
laksmivivardhanim). The hypermetrical reading karalarupa in 12c, which was also
that of the Tibetan translation (rDo rje rakha' gro f. 49r6: gtsigs pa'i gzugs can), is
no doubt an error for kdlarupd, echoing kardld in the preceding quarter.
466 See the paraphrase of the Nisisamcara 's treatment of these twenty-four Sakta
sacred sites in Tantraloka 15.88-97b and the direct citations in Jayaratha's
commentary on these verses. These show a list that differs somewhat from
that found in the Nepalese manuscripts. The latter has Attahasa, Caritra,
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
or within some other Saiva source. However, this is improbable in the light
of the Vajradaka's treatments of all four of these sites. For what they have in
common is that they deviate from the pattern of the rest of the passage in that
their presiding goddesses, Mahadevi of Uddiyana, Candalini of Jalandhara,
Sahaja of Tibet, and Seka of Malava, are not assigned to one or other of the
eight goddesses of the Picumata. Instead, in the case of the first three the
redactor has filled in the text at these points by assigning them to the families
of Guhya (guhyakhyayonisambhava), Soma (somasambhava), and Svayambhu
(svayambhuyonisambhava), and in the case of the fourth omitting to assign her
to any deity 467 Why he chose these names is unknown to me. Only one is a
goddess and not one of them is of any significance in Tantric Buddhism, unless
the Svayambhu intended is that of the famous Svayambhucaitya of Kathmandu.
It seems likely that he supplied these names at random in order to maintain the
compositional structure. In any case, since it would have been an easy task to
insert names from among those of the eight goddesses that structure his Saiva
source, it is evident that they meant nothing to him.
The other list of sacred places appears in Laghusamvara 41.6-15. The
verses first list these places (6-8b) and then state the classes of Yoginis and
other female supernaturals said to be present in them, though without covering
them all. 468 The Saiva source, or rather a later redactional variant of it, is seen
in the following passage in the Tantrasadbhava:
Kolagiri, JayantI, Ujjayim, Prayaga, Varana, and Kotivarsa (/Devikotta) (the
eight Ksetras); Viraja, Erudi, Hatapura, Elapura, Gokarna, Marukesvara, Na-
gara (Pataliputra), and Pundravardhana (the eight Samdohas); and Parastira,
Prsthapura, Kundl, Chosmara, Ksirika, Mayapuri, Amratikesvara, and Rajagrha
(the eight Upaksetras). The list in the redaction known to Abhinavagupta and
Jayaratha has Prayaga, Varana, Attahasa, Jayanti, Varanasi, Kalinga, Kuluta,
and Lahula (the eight Ksetras); Viraja, Erudi, Hala, Elapura, Ksirapuri, Na-
gara, Mayapuri, and Marudesa (the eight Samdohas); and Jalandhara, Nepala,
Kasmira, Gargika, Hara, Mlecchadigdvaravrtti, Kuruksetra, and Khetaka (the
eight Upasamdohas). It is striking that this introduces a number of Himalayan re-
gions, namely Kuluta (Kulu), Lahula (Lahul), Nepala, Kasmira, and also Gargika,
if that refers to Garhwal. Mlecchadigdvaravrtti 'the pass (?) to the region of the
barbarians' is also likely to refer to a location in the Himalaya or Hindu Kush.
467 Vajraddka f. 43rl-2 (18.43): *odydyane *mahadevT (corr. : mahadevi Cod.)
guhyakhyayonisambhava | vajrasrhkhaladhard devya sughora divyariipini; f.
43r2— 3 (18.45): jalandhare tu candalini jneya mudra kattarikodyata | soma-
sambhava mahadevi sarvaisvarya*pradayika (em. : dayika Cod.); f. 43r7-vl
(18.55): bhotavisaye sahajakhya makaradhvajadharinl | svayambhuyonisambhava
saumyasya divyariipini; f. 43vl-2 (18.57): malave tu tatha seka mudramud-
gara*dharini (corr. : dharani Cod.) | sadhakdnam *priyd (corr. : praya Cod.) nityam
\jasasvini prasasyah\syuh.
468 A related system of thirty-two sacred sites is taught in Hevajra 1.6.10-19, and, with
some differences, in Mahamudratilaka, Patala 10 (ff. 17vl-20v5).
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The Saiva Age
kulutayam aranyese sindhudese nagesvare ||
62 samudrakuksyam saurastre pretapuryam himalaye |
kancyam lampakavisaye kalinge kausale sthale ||
63 trisakunis tathd caudre kamarupe ca mdlave |
devlkotte sudharame goddvaryds tate 'rbude ||
64 esu desesu yah kanyah striyo vd klinnayonayah \
sarvds tah kamarupinyo manoveganuvrttayah ||
65 sesesu yds samutpannah sdkinyo ghoramatarah |
sad yoginyah kulutayam aranyese ca matarah ||
66 sindhudese bhaginyas tu nagese kulanayikah |
samudrakuksyam kampilyah saurastre grhadevatah ||
67 pretapuryam mahakalyo rupinyo himavadgirau |
kancyam ambah samakhyata lampakavisaye 'mrtah ||
68 kalinge vratadharinyah kausale pisitasanah \
cakravakyah sthale proktas trisakunyamarah smrtah ||
69 desadvaye ca sdkinyo nayika viranayika<h> |
126 yds canyas ca vinirdista raudra bhairavamatarah
mahamanthanarudras tu tasam mandalandyakah i69 ||
ff. 109v5-110rl, lllvl (16.61c-69a, 16.126)
62a samudrakuksyam corr. : samudrakuksya Cod. 62c kancyam em. : kamcya
Cod. 63a caudre corr. : codre Cod. 64a esu em. : esa Cod. 68b trisakunyamarah
conj. [Aisa Sandhi for trisakunyam amarah] : trisamyamarah Cod.
The corresponding passage of the Laghusamvara is not present in the in-
complete Sanskrit manuscript accessible to me, since the folios that contained it,
covering 38.13c to the end of Patala 44, are among those it lacks. But it can be
restored with some confidence, except in the matter of the presence or absence
of a few particles, by combining the evidence of the Tibetan translation, 470 the
469 rp^g f ac ^ ^ a ^ ^g ^ ex £ f 09a]-, an( j \26 are contiguous in the Buddhist version indi-
cates that the Saiva text on which it drew was not the Tantrasadbhdva, at least not
in its surviving redaction, but an earlier source to which 69c-125, which contain
a further, much longer list of Sthanayogims and their classification as belonging
to the families of one or other of the seven Mothers (sapta matrkulani), have been
added. The alternative, that the Buddhist redactor removed this section because he
had no use for this list and its scheme of classification, is not impossible. However,
it seems unlikely that in that case he would have taken the special trouble of re-
taining 126. It is not needed to complete the sense and proved awkward to integrate
because he had it in what was evidently an already corrupted form.
470 bDe mchog nyung ngu, f. 238vl— 5 (= Laghusamvara 41.6—15): kuluta dang dgon pa
dang | si ndhu'i yul dang grong khyer dbang \ gser gyi gling dang sau ra sta | de
bzhin lha yi khyim dang ni \ yi dags grong dang kha ba'i gnas \ ka nci 'am la mpa ka
yi yul | ka li ngga dang ko sa la \ tri sha ku ne o tre dang \ ka ma ru pa ma la wa lha
mo'i mkhar dang ra ma'i dbang \ go da ba ri a rbu da \ au dya na dza la ndhar dang
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
lemmata in the surviving Sanskrit commentaries, and a rewriting of parts of the
passage in the Vajradaka: 411
41.6 kulatayam aranye ca sindhudese nagaresvare |
suvarnadvipe saurastre tatha ca grhadevata
pretapuryam himdlaye ||
7 kdncydm lampdkavisaye kalihge cfaiva] kosale |
trisakunis tatha odre kamarupe [ca] malave ||
8 devikotte ramesvare godavarydm [tathd]rbude |
oddiyanajalandharapulliramalayadisu \\
9 etesu desesu kanya yd vlradvayavyapini |
sarvas tah kamarupinyo manoveganivrttayah ||
10 sad yoginyah kulatayam marudese ca matarah |
sindhudese [ca] lamas tu nagare kulanayikah |
11 lampake saurastre kuladevatah \
pretapuryam mahdkalyo dakinl saha rupinl ||
12 himagirau kdncydm sabalikah \
pancalavisaye grhadevata ||
13 kalihge vratadharinyah kosale pisitasanah |
pretapuryam vajradakyah sthalesvare ||
14 trisakunyam [ca] amarah pulliramalaye
kanakagirau antyajah striyah sahasrany ekavimsatih ||
\pu Hi ra ma la ya sogs | yul 'di dag gibu mo gang | dpa' bo gnyis med rnal 'byor ma
| de kun 'dodpa'i gzugs can te \ yid kyi shugs kyis 'jug pa yis | rnal 'byor ma drug ku
lu tar | myang ma yul na ma mo mams \ si ndhu'i yul na la ma ste \ rigs kyi gtso mo
na ga rar | la mpa ka dang sau ra stra | rigs kyi lha mo mams yin no | yi dags grong
dang nags chen par \ mkha' 'gro ru pi ka ru bcas | kha ba'i ri dang ka heir ni | byis
bcas ma ru bshad pa ste | pa hca la yi yul dag na | khyim gyi lha mo ka li nggar |
brtul zhugs 'dzin pa mams yin no \ ko sa lar ni sha za ba \ yi dags grong du de bzhin
du | rdo rje mkha' 'gro sbom dbang phyug \ tri sha ku ner du ma skyes ma \ pu li ra
ma la ya de bzhin \ gser rir sme sha can rigs skyes \ bud med stong phrag nyi shu
gcig | lhag ma gzhan dag ji snyed pa | dpal Idan he ru ka yi ni | 'khor lo'i rnal 'byor
ma yin no | he ru ka dpal sbyor ba che de yi dkyil 'khor gtso mo yin .
471 Vajradaka f. 41v3-6 (18.3c-10b): sad yoginyas tu sadhakah mlecchabhasam tu
bhasitam | 18.4 kulatayam tu marudese ca yd matarah || sindhau ca nagare *ca
yah (corr. : carya Cod.) kulanayikah | 18.5 lampake saurastre ya<h> kuladevatah
| himagirau *kahcyam yah sabalikah (em. : kahcayam yd balika Cod.) | 18.6
pancala grhadevatayam yd kanya sahajarupinl \ kalihge *kosale (corr. : kausale
Cod.) caiva vratadharinT *pisitasana (em. : pisitasina Cod.) | 18.7 pretapuryam
trisakunau ca sthulesvarl khanda*rohika (em. : rohita Cod.) sthita \ *purnagirau
(corr. : punnagirau Cod.) jalandhare candalajah striyah | 18.8 odre kamarupe
ca mahakanyah devikote ramesvare ca yd kanya mata | *goddvaryam arbude ca
(corr. : goddvarydmbude va Cod.) dakinl paramesvarl \ 18.9 suvarnadvipa<m>
*yathoddistam (corr. : yathodhistam Cod.) udyayanam tathaiva ca \ etesu desesu
yd kanya vlradvayavyapini | 18.10 sarvas tah kamarupinyo * manoveganivrttayah
(corr. : manovegonivrttayah Cod.).
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The Saiva Age
15 any dpi sesas ca yavatyah sriherukasya yogini |
mahamanthana tasam mandalanayika \\
The words within square brackets are purely conjectural
Testimonia: BhBh = Bhavabhatta ad loc; DG = Devagupta ad loc; JBh = Jaya-
bhadra ad loc; KP = Kambalapada ad loc; Tib. = bDe mchog nyung ngu; VD =
Vajraddka f. 41v3-6 (18.3c-10b).
LEMMATA: 6a kulatayam ityddind BhBh • aranyam marubhumih JBh 6d
grhadevateti saptamilopdt BhBh 8a drano rdmesvarah JBh 8cd oddiydnajdlan-
dharapulliramalayd ddibhutd yesdm ta oddiydnajdlandharapulliramalayddayo
'rbudddayah BhBh; pulliramalayo na nirdistah JBh 9ab etesu desesu KP, BhBh,
VD • yd kanyd virddvayavydpini VD, BhBh, KP; bu mo gang dpa' bo gnyis med
rnal 'byor ma (yd kanyd virddvayayogini) Tib.; 9c kdmarupinya iti BhBh, VD
9d manoveganivrttaya iti BhBh, KP, VD 10a sad yoginyah BhBh, KP, JBh, VD
10b marudese BhBh, KP • mdtdrd iti BhBh; mdtarah kdkdsyddydh JBh lOab
kulatayam marudese ca mdtaretyddi KP, VD 10c lamas tv iti JBh; lama iti BhBh
lOd kulandyikdh JBh, BhBh llab la mpd ka dang sau rd stra Tib.; lampdke
saurdstre yd<h> kuladevatdh VD; lampdydm saurdstre kuladevatdh BhBh; lie
mahdkdlo mahdbhairavah lied pretapurydm mahdkanyd ddkinlsaharupiniti
BhBh; ddkinibhir iti sahdrthe trtiyd \ kimbhutdbhih saha \ rupinyah \ rupinity
anyd rupinyas cumbikdsabdlikdprabhrtayah prthagbhutdh saha rupinibhir iti
drastavydh 12ab himagirau kdncydm sabdlikd iti BhBh 12cd pancdlavisaye \
grhadevatd grhadevatdydm BhBh; pahcdla iti JBh 13a ka li nggar | brtul zhugs
'dzin pa mams yin no (kalinge vratadhdrinyah) Tib.; kalihge ca vratadhdrinyah
BhBh 13b kosale pisitdsandh BhBh 13cd pretapurydm vajraddkinyah BhBh
14bcd pulliramalaye kanakagirdv iti \ ihdntyajdh striyah \ sahasrdny ekavimsatir
iti bdhulyasucandrtham BhBh; sahasrdny ekavimsatir iti KP 15ab sesdnyesu
yavatyah sriherukacakrayoginltyddi KP, BhK (lhag ma gzhan dag ji snyed
pa | dpal Idan he ru ka yi ni | 'khor lo'i rnal 'byor ma yin no), DG (lhag ma
gzhan mams ji snyed pa | dpal Idan he ru ka yi ni | 'khor lo'i rnal 'byor ma yin
no); sesdnyesu hi ydvantya iti | sriherukasya yoginiti prathamdbahuvacanalope
BhBh; anyd api sesas ca devatyah sriherukayoginyah JBh (cf. DG: lha mo gzhan
dag ji snyed pa | dpal Idan he ru ka yi ni | zhes bya ba la sogs pa smos so | ji
Itar zhen | he ru ka yi sbyor chen las | de yi dkyil 'khor gtso mo yin | zhes bya
ba la sogs pa la) 15cd mahamanthana iti sriherukasya manthdnayogydh
tasam iti nirdhdrane sasthi | mandalanayika iti tricakravartinyas caturvimsatir
ddkinyah JBh; mahdmanthdnam prajhopdyasvarupatvam updyo vd | tendnvitah
sriherukah prajndriLpah tasya sambandhinindm tasam madhye mandalanayika
vajravdrdhi samdpanneti bhdvah \ mahdmanthdnam nirmdnam nirvibhaktikam
| tasam nirmdnam sriherukenaiva sampddyam yatah | sriherukamahdmudrd-
mandalandyiketi kecit BhBh
In the Buddhist version the total of twenty-one sites has been raised by the
addition of Oddiyana, Jalandhara, and Pulliramalaya at the end of the first sec-
tion (8cd). The reason for the addition is not made explicit in the Laghusamvara
itself; but the fourth Patala had listed twenty-four Yoginis from Mahavlrya to
Pracanda; 472 and in the ritual system followed by the commentators and the
472 Laghusamvara f. 4v4— 6: *tato (JAYABHADRA : tatah Cod.) dakinyo bhuvanani
vijrmbhayanti | 4.1 mahdviryd cakravartini mahdbald suvird cakravarmini \
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
corpus of explanatory Tantras the sacred sites, as we have seen, are likewise
twenty-four because each is the location of one of these Yoginis. We have evi-
dence of two stages in the modification of the text that produced this result. For
the earlier redaction, attested by Jayabhadra, states that Pulliramalaya is not
mentioned in this passage but must be understood to be included. 473 It is clear
then that his text mentioned only Oddiyana and Jalandhara in addition to the
twenty-one of the Saiva source. Jayabhadra does not cite the actual wording
of the insertion, and no other indications allow us to establish it. However, it
is unlikely that the redactor took the trouble of stretching his interpolation of
saundini khandarohd cakravega khaganana \\ 2 haya*karnd (corr. : varnnd Cod.)
subhadra ca *sydmddevl (corr. : sydmdthavT Cod.) tathaiva ca | surdbhaksi vdyuvegd
tathd mahdbhairavd || 3 airdvati drumacchay a lahkesvarl kharvarl tathd | viramati
mahdndsd prabhdvati caiva canddksT pracandd ca sddhakah || 4 etdh siddhds tu vai
purvam caturvimsati ddkinyah. This list too has parallels in the Vidyapitha, though
I have found only partial matches. Thus the Yoginisamcdra of Jayadrathaydmala,
Satka 3, gives the following list of twenty-four Yoginis whose names when ut-
tered draw in the Smasanabhutas (f. 202r5-7 [9.58-61]): sarabhdn<an>d suvira
ca vajribhd *rdsabhd (conj. : rdsibhd Cod.) tathd | *cakravarti (corr. : cakravarti
Cod.) ca *saundi (em. : paundi Cod.) ca khadgakarnd mahdtapd || 59 cakravega
mahdydmyd subhadra gajakarnikd | card vai somadevT ca gavdksT vayuvegaga
|| 60 airdvati mahdndsd damstrdlT ca sukarkasd | vedhani ca tathd bhattd
drond kdkenakd tathd || 61 yatra ndmdni yogindm uccdryante mahdtape | tatra
smasanabhutas ca sdmnidhyam yd<n>ti tatksandt. The eight names in bold char-
acters are those that are among the twenty-four of the Laghusamvara. Compare
also the names Sarabhanana, Khadgakarna, Gajakarnika, and Somadevi with the
Laghusamvara 's Khaganana, Hayakarna, and Syamadevi. The names of four of
the Laghusamvara's Dakinls are found among the fourteen inner goddesses of the
Picumata, i.e., the four Guhyakas, their four Dutis, and the six Yoginis, namely
Candaksi (the third Guhyaka), Mahabala (the fourth Duti), and Cakravega and
Mahanasa (the fifth and sixth Yoginis). For the first eight see 4.254c-256 cited
here p. 193. For the six Yoginis see f. 19r3 (4.257): krostuki vijayd caiva gajakarnd
mahdmukhi | cakravega mahdndsd sad yoginyah praklrtitdh. Suvira appears
in Kubjikdmata 21.45c and Matasdra f. 138rl, Khaganana as one of the eight
Saktasiddhas of the Kalikula/Krama, Lankesvari in Matasdra f. 81rl as one of
eight Yoginis in a variant of the inner retinue of the Picumata, and Prabhavati in
Kubjikdmata 11.115a and 12.23b.
473 See here p. 158. Kanha, Yogaratnamdld on Hevajra 1.7.12, identifies Pulliramalaya
with Purnagiri and that appears in its place in listings of these sacred places in
later texts of the Cakrasamvara cycle, as in Samvarodaya 9.14. In the treatment
of the thirty-two sacred sites of the Hevajra system in the tenth Patala of the
Mahdmudrdtilaka we find Purnagiri and Pullira denoting the same place (f. 17r5-
vl: odiydnam pltham dkhydtam pitham jdlandharam smrtam | pitham purnagiris
caiva kdmarupam tathaiva ca . . . f. 18rl-2: sirasi sthitam vajrapltham sikhdydm
jddisamjnitam \ pulliram mastake jneyam bhrumadhye kdmarupakam). On the
location of Purnagiri, in the Deccan, see Sanderson 2007a, pp. 298-299. In Sakta
Saiva sources it is one of the principal Pithas and is often referred to, but never
under the name Pulliramalaya/Pullira.
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The Saiva Age
the names of these two places to fill a whole line (8cd). 474 The later reading,
oddiyanajalandharapulliramayadisu, attested by the Tibetan translation and
by the lemmata in the commentaries of Bhavyakirti and Bhavabhatta, supplies
the missing Pulliramalaya and, incidentally, is an almost metrical half-verse: its
first half (oddiyanajalandhara) is unmetrical, but the second is not, and together
they provide the required total of sixteen syllables. As for the meaning of the in-
sertion, ordinary usage suggests that it is 'Oddiyana, Jalandhara, Pulliramalaya,
and others'. But that would not sit well with the closed list of twenty -four Yo-
ginis to which the sacred places were required to correspond. Thus it has been
interpreted by Bhavabhatta to mean 'beginning with Oddiyana, Jalandhara, and
Pulliramalaya', this compound with its locative plural ending being read as qual-
ifying the twenty -one sites, each listed in the common text with actual or virtual
locative singular endings. Thus we have twenty-four Yoginis in twenty-four sites.
All that was needed to make this fit the system known to the commentators was
to claim that the Laghusamvara is deliberately concealing the true order of the
items, both the names of the Yoginis in Patala 4 475 and the names of the sacred
sites in Patala 41. For in their system that order is not Oddiyana, Jalandhara,
and Pulliramalaya followed by the twenty-one from Kuluta to Arbuda, as the
Laghusamvara itself indicates, but the added three in reverse order followed by
the twenty-one in reverse order, with the order of the Yoginis also reversed, so
that the true sequence is from Pracanda in Pulliramalaya to Mahavirya in Ar-
buda. 476
474 The frequent deviations from correct metrical form in this corpus create the im-
pression that the redactors were largely indifferent to this aspect of composition,
happily inserting and deleting without feeling the need to rewrite the result to con-
form to the rules of the Anustubh metre. The alternative, that they lacked not
the inclination but the ability to do so, seems to me less likely. In the texts of the
Saiva Vidyapitha, even when the Sanskrit is of a register well below that of the
learned, the metrical structure is generally sound. Indeed since we find forms from
both learned and scriptural (Aisa) registers used in the same texts it seems that by
drawing on both the redactors were not only asserting that their compositions were
divine rather than human utterances but also making the task of metrical compo-
sition easier for themselves by using an Aisa form that fitted the metre when the
Paninian would not, as, for example, in the case of the not infrequent use of Aisa
genitives plural in -dm in place of the Paninian -dndm.
475 On the passage listing the twenty-four Yoginls/Dakinls in Patala 4 Jayabhadra com-
ments (Cakrasamvarapanjikd, p. 115): tricakravyavasthitdndm ddkinindm prthak
prthah ndmdni kathyante | mahdvlryetyddind vilomena kathitam 'The names of
each of the Dakinis that occupy the three circuits are now taught. This has been
done in the reverse order, beginning with Mahavirya [and ending with Pracanda]'.
The order in which Mahavirya is the last and Pracanda the first, the order of their
ritual application, is, however, indicated later in the text, in f. 35r7 (48.13): yoginyah
pracandddayas tathd.
476 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjikd, f. 126vl-3 (Ed. p. 547): oddiydnajdlandhara-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Most of the few other differences between the version in Laghusamvara
41 and that seen in the Saiva source are of little significance. But there is
one that is more revealing. The Tantrasadbhdva has Sthala between Kosala
and Trisakuni (16.62c-63b: kancyam lampakavisaye kalinge kausale sthale
| trisakunis tathd caudre kdmarupe ca mdlave), whereas the Laghusamvara
lacks it (41.7: kancyam lampakavisaye kalinge cfaiva] kosale \ trisakunis
tathd odre kdmarupe [ca] mdlave), and instead between Saurastra and Pre-
tapuri has Grhadevata (41.6: kulatdydm aranye ca sindhudese nagaresvare
| suvarnadvlpe saurastre tathd ca grhadevata pretapuryam himdlaye),
which the Tantrasadbhdva lacks (16.61c-62b: kulutdydm aranyese sindhudese
nagesvare \ samudrakuksydm saurastre pretapuryam himdlaye). Two features
are immediately obvious here. The first is that the additional words tathd ca
grhadevata have been added to an otherwise metrically correct verse with the
result that it has five Padas rather than the required four, with the fourth and
fifth both with the cadence restricted to the second and fourth Padas of the
Anustubh, thus crudely violating the required metrical alternation of evenly and
unevenly numbered Padas that is hallmark of this metre. The second is that
Grhadevata, meaning 'household deity' is a most implausible place name. The
key to the mistake, which became a permanent part of the ritual system of the
Cakrasamvara cycle, is in the second part of the passage in the version of the
Tantrasadbhdva, which tells the reader the classes of supernaturals that are
present in the sacred sites. For there grhadevatdh 'household deities' are said to
be present in Saurastra in a verse in which the items Saurastra, grhadevatdh,
and Pretapuri are stated in that order (16.66c-67b: samudrakuksydm kdmpilyas
saurastre grhadevatdh \ pretapuryam mahdkdlyo rupinyo himavadgirau 'In
Samudrakuksi Kampilis, in Saurastra Grhadevatas, in Pretapuri Mahakalis,
in Himalaya Rupinis'). Evidently the redactor has read the sequence saurastre
grhadevatdh pretapuryam as though these were three sites rather than one site
followed by its resident supernaturals and another site. Probably his manuscript
read grhadevata rather than grhadevatdh and he took it as a stem-form to be un-
derstood as locative, a licence of kind seen elsewhere in both the Laghusamvara
and its Saiva sources, as, apparently, in the unmetrical insertion that this
error prompted: suvarnadvlpe saurastre tathd ca grhadevata pretapuryam
himdlaye. Bhavabhatta duly comments on the occurrence of grhadevata in that
pulllramalaya adibhuta yesam ta oddiyanajalandharapulllramalayadayo 'rbuda-
dayah kulatantah | bhavas cayam *puiliramalayam adim (Cod. : pulllramalayadim
Ed.) krtva jalandharauddiyandrbudadisu santity upadesartham vyatikrama-
nirdesah | etena mandate sarire ca pulliramalayadisu yogininyasah kathitah;
ff. 126v6-127rl (Ed. p. 547) pulliramalayadisu pracandddaya OM KARA KARA
PRACANDE HUM HUM PHAD ityddimantrajd bhavyah.
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The Saiva Age
part of the passage with the words grhadevateti saptamilopat '[We have the
form] grhadevata [here] because zero has been substituted for the ending of the
locative'.
The direction of redaction is also unmistakeable in the passage of the
Laghusamvara (1.15-4.1) (B) that prescribes the ritual of initiation. This has
evidently been redacted on the basis a Saiva source of which an expanded variant
is seen in 8.3-28 of the Yoginisamcara (A) redacted in the Jayadrathayamala:
8.3 girigahvaraguhyesu
B
1.15 girigahvarakunjesu
mahodadhitatesu ca
adisiddhe smasane vd
alikhen mandalam subham
mahodadhitatesu vd
adisiddhe smasane ca
tatra mandalam alikhet
iti herukabhidhane
mandalavatarapatalah prathamah
8.4 smasanabhasmana misram
kapilagomayam subham
raktodakavimisrena
tena bhumim pralepayet
8.5 smasanabhasma samgrhya
smasane 'stadalam subham
smasanangaracurnam tu
trirekham mandalam likhet
8.6 ekahastam dvihastam vd
caturastakaram tatha
Cf. B 2.12cd
sutrayed rudhiraktena
savasutrena sutradhrk
Cf. B 2.11cd.
8.7 akrodhano sucir dakso
deary o jnanaparagah
kapalamalabharano
raudrabhasmavagunthitah
2.1 tatra panagomayena
mandalabhumi pralepayet
smasanabhasmana yuktam
pancamrtasamanvitam
2.2 upalipya tato bhumim
tatra mandalam drabhet
smasanam tu samacaret
2.3 cityahgaracurnena
smasanestakasamyutam
alikhen mandalam divyam
acaryah susalaksanah
2.4 samyagjhanatantrajhah
sriherukamantrajnah
akrodhanah sucir dakso
yogajho jnanaparagah
2.5 kapalakrtamurdhajah
bhasmanuliptdhgah
-203-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
8.8 pancamudravratadharo
bhairavahgair vibhiisitah
mahabhutastrajalena
samantat parivestitam
8.9 alikhen mandalavaram
ghorasiddhipradayakam
caturasram caturdvaram
madhye padmavibhusitam
8.10 astapatram tu tat padmam
karnikadhisthitam subham
tasya madhye nyased devi
bhairavam bhlmavikramam
8.11 daksindbhimukham diptam
bhlmarupam bhaydvaham
tasyagratah sthita devi
aghora ghoravikrama
8.12 bhairavabhimukham kruddham
raudrarupam nyaset tatah
sambhavan matrair vibhusitagatrah
mudramantrair alamkrtam
2.11 alikhen mandalam ghoram
mahasiddhipraddyakam
tato mrtakasutrena
maharudhirarahjitena va
Cf. A 8.6cd
2.12 sutrayen mandalam ghoram
herukasya param puram
ekahastam catur astam ca
Cf. A 8.6ab
caturasram tu samantatah
2.13 caturdvarasamakirnam
catustoranabhusitam
vicared dvigunam mantri
yajed dakinljalasamvaram
2.14 tasya madhye pratisthapya
sapatram karnikojjvalam
puskarais ca kesaranvitam
2.15 karnikayam nyased viram
mahdbhairava bhlsanam
tejaskam tu sudlptahgam
attattahasamaharavam
2.16 kapalamalabharanam
divyam trinetram caturmukham
hasticarmavaruddham ca
vajrasambhinnasabhruvam
2.17 khatvahgakrtahastam tu
satamdldrdhabhusitam
tasyagratah sthitam devim
vajravarahlm sughoram
2.18 mahabhairavabhimukham krtva tu
trimukhlm raudrarupinlm
8.19c tatah sisyan pravesayet
sopavasan sucin snatan
arcayed uttaramukhdn
8.20 kapalena sirah sprstva
samputam hrdaye nyaset
khatvahgena tu sarvahgan
alabhet putrakasya tu
-204-
The Saiva Age
8.21 agrato vadayed ghantam
patahlm damarum tathd
vastracchannamukham devi
puspdhjalidharam tathd
8.22 pradaksinikrtya puram
daksindmurtim dsritah
tato ddvdpayet puspdn
devasyopari putrakam
8.23 yasmims tat patate puspam
tat tasya kulam ddiset
hrnmantraparijaptena
tilakdn tesu kdrayet
8.24 raktena darsayet tasya
mukham udghdtya mandalam
yad yasya devatdsthdnam
tat sarvam tasya darsayet
8.25 samaydh srdvayitvd tu
pranipatya puram guroh
susrdvya purvavidhind
samsiddhaputrakdnvitam
8.26 gurum sampujya vidhivad
vittasdthyavivarjitah
3.2 ghantdnddam dlambya
puspadhupair alamkrtdm
ghantam vddayet susvardm
patahikdm vdpi sddhakah
3.3 hdhdkdram ca kdrayet
evam vidhivat pujya
mandalam sarvakdmikam
3.4 samchddya patavastrena
mukham tesdm tu putrakam
puspapurndnjalim praksipet
3.5 pradaksinam ca tatah krtvd
sddhakah susamdhitah
pravesayet tat puravaram ramyam
daksindmurtim dsritya
3.6 puspdhjalin tatah ksipet
mandalasyopari
yasmin patati tat puspam
kulam tatra vinirdiset
3.7 srlherukddipitha darsayet
tatah puj ay en mudrdm
dcdryah susamdhitah
3.8 sisydndn tu dvitiye ahani
raktena trijaptena
tilakam tasya kdrayet
mukham udghdtya sisyam
darsayen mandalam tatah
3.9 yad yasya devatdsthdnam
tatra tarn darsayet samyak
pranipatya tatah pascdd
3.11 tatas tu gurave dadyat
tathdgatoktadaksindm
pragrhya kulajdn mantrdn
vratdms ca samaydms tathd
8.27 tdvad drddhayed devi
yoginyo mdtaro gurum
matrdutyo vratams caiva
ydvadantam kramena tu
3.15c tatas tasya tusyanti
ddkinyo yogamdtardh
ddkinyo lamayas caiva
khandarohd tu rupini
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
4.1 tato dakinyo bhuvanani
vijrmbhayanti mahdviryd
8.28 drddhanakramdd ydti
trisasticarusodhitah
bhairavibhuvand devi
sarvasaktibhir dvrtah
Apparatus Criticus of A
Codd. : A ff. 286v2-; B ff. 182r4-; C ff. 166v3-; D ff. 200r2-; E ff. 183v7-.
8.3c ddisiddhe smasdne B : ddisiddhai smasdnair ACDE 8.7a akrodhano em.
: sakrodhano Codd. 8.10d bhairavam em. : bhairavT Codd. 8.1 Id vikramd
em. : vikramdn AC : vikramdm B : vikramdt DE. Cf. Picumata 1.2d: aghori
bhimavikramd 8.19d uttardmukhdn em. : uttardmukham C : uttardmmukham
ABDE 8.20b samputdm corr. : samputd Codd. 8.20c sarvdhgdn em. : sarvdhgd
ACD : sarvdhgo B 8.21a vddayed conj. : vddaye Codd. 8.21b patahim em. :
pataho Codd. • damarum em. : damaras Codd. 8.21d dharam em. : varam
Codd. 8.22d putrakam em. : putrakah Codd. 8.25a samaydn em. : samayam
Codd. • srdvayitvd B : srdvayitvds Codd. 8.25d samsiddhaputrakdnvitam conj.
: samsiddham putrakdmvitam A : samsiddham putrakdmcitam BCDE 8.28a
drddhana conj. : aropand Codd. • kramdd ydti conj. : kramaprdpti Codd.
Apparatus Criticus of B
Cod.: f. 2r3-. TESTIMONIA : AbhU = Abhidhdnottara 46.10-57 (A f. 146r6- [<La-
ghusamvara 2.1-]); BhBh = Bhavabhatta ad loc; BhK = Bhavyakirti ad loc; IBh
= Indrabhuti ad loc; JBh = Jayabhadra ad loc; SV = Sasvatavajra ad loc; Tib. =
bDe mchog nyung ngu; VV = Viravajra ad loc.
1.15c ddisiddhe BhBh : ddisiddha Cod. 2.1a tatra pdnagomayena Cod. AbhU,
BhBh, SV (chu dang ba byung blangs 'water and cow dung') : Hatrdpdtagomayena
Tib. (der ni lei ba ma Ihung bas), BhK (de la lei ba ma Itung bas) 2.1b prale-
payet Cod., AbhU : upalepayet BhBh 2.3a cityahgdra BhBh : citydhgdra
Cod. : cityahgdraka AbhU 2.3b samyutam conj. (= AbhU); cf. Picumata
5.116cd: kdkavista samdddya smasdnestakasamyutam) : samyuktam Cod. 2.4a
samyagjndnatantrajnah Cod., BhBh : samyagjndnesu tattvajnah AbhU 2.4c
akrodhanah JBh AbhU : akrodhas ca Cod. BhBh 2.1 Id mahdrudhiraranjitena
vd Cod., Tib. (de nas sems med srad bu 'am | ru di ra ni chen pos brlan)
mahdrudhirdnjitena vd BhBh : mahdrudhiraranjitam AbhU, Tib. 2.13d yajed
JBh : japed Cod. : pujayed BhBh, Tib. (mkha' gro dra ba'i bde mchog mchod)
2.17c tasydgratah sthitdm devim JBh, BhBh, Tib. {de mdun gnas pa'i lha
mo ni) : tasydlihgatdsthitd devi Cod. 2.18a mahdbhairavdbhimukhdm krtvd
tu JBh : mahdbhairavdbhimukhim AbhU, W (rab 'jigs byed che la phyogs) :
sriherukdbhimukhdm krtvd tu Cod. BhBh : *mahdsriherukdbhimukhim Tib.
(he ru ka dpal che la phyogs) : * sriherukajndndbhimukha- (he ru ka dpal ye
shes phyogs ni IBh 3.2c vddayet Cod. : nddayet BhBh 3.3a pujya BhBh
sampujya Cod. 3.4b putrakam em. [Aisa gen. pi.; =AbhU] : putrakdn BhBh
putrakdndm Cod. 3.7a sriherukddipitha BhBh (sriherukddipitheti dvitiydlope)
sriherukddim pithan Cod. 3.7bc tatah pujayen mudrdm dedryah susamdhitah
BhBh, Tib. (de nas slob dpon legs par ni | mnyam par bzhag ste phyag rgya
mchod): tatah pujayen mudrdedryah susamdhitah Cod. : tato hi pujayet mudrdm
dedryah susamdhitah AbhU : tatah pujayen mudrdm svamudrdm susamdhitah
JBh 3.9a yad yasya JBh, BhBh : yo yasya Cod., AbhU.
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The Saiva Age
Here we see several tell-tale signs. In the Buddhist version the disciples
undergoing the initiation are referred to as putrakah (3.4ab: samcchadya
patavastrena mukham tesam tu putrakam 'Having covered the faces of those
disciples with a piece of cloth'), a term that is standard in this technical sense
in the Saiva literature but to my knowledge appears with it nowhere else in
Buddhist Tantric sources.
In 2.15 the installation of the main deity in the centre of the initiation
Mandala is described as follows: karnikayam nyased vlram mahdbhairava
bhlsanam 'On the pericarp [at the centre of the lotus diagram] he should install
the terrifying Vira Mahabhairava'. The Saiva version (8.10cd) has tasya madhye
nyased devi bhairavam bhlmavikramam 'O Devi, in the centre of that [lotus] he
should install Bhairava of terrible might'. But for this parallel we might have
been tempted to read the Buddhist version not as mahdbhairava bhlsanam, with
mahabhairava as a stem-form substituted for the accusative mahabhairavam
for metrical convenience, a common licence in this register of the language,
but as mahabhairavabhlsanam, preferring a pleonasm 'most frightening [and]
terrible' to a reading that shows the name of the deity of the Vidyapitha, a clear
sign of incomplete assimilation.
The Saiva text follows this with tasyagratah sthitam devim aghoram
ghoravikramam \ bhairavabhimukhlm kruddham raudrarupam nyaset tatah
'Then he should install the goddess Aghora of frightening might standing before
him, facing Bhairava, furious and of terrible aspect'. The Buddhist version
first inserts a description of some of the male deity's iconographic features
and then returns to redact its Saiva exemplar as follows: tasyagratah sthitam
devim vajravarahlm sughoram \ mahabhairavabhimukham krtva tu trinetrlm
raudrarupinlm '[and] the most frightening goddess Vajravarahi standing be-
fore him, three-eyed, of terrible aspect, making her face Mahabhairava'. The
Buddhist name of Heruka's consort has been inserted but the redactor has not
troubled to do the same for Heruka, leaving the Saiva name unchanged. The
accessible Sanskrit manuscript does give the name of Heruka here, reading
srlherukabhimukham krtva tu, and this reading is supported by the commenta-
tors Bhavabhatta (srlherukabhimukham krtva) and Indrabhuti (he ru ka dpal
ye shes phyogs ni [*srlherukajnanabhimukha-]), and the Tibetan translation (he
ru ka dpal che la phyogs [*mahasrlherukabhimukha-]). But it is certain that
this is a later improvement, because mahabhairavabhimukham krtva tu is what
we find in the older redaction attested in Jayabhadra's commentary, and in the
text as incorporated in the Abhidhanottara (mahabhairavabhimukhlm). It is
also supported by the commentary on the later form of the Laghusamvara by
Viravajra, who gives rab 'jigs byed che la phyogs 'facing Mahabhairava' here.
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Further, in most places where a Buddhist imprint is visible the text be-
comes unmetrical. This is most economically explained by the hypothesis stated
above 477 that what we are seeing is a Saiva source after its redaction by a Bud-
dhist with little concern for metrical accuracy 478
Finally the Laghusamvara's account of initiation is remarkably un-
Buddhist in its content. This is not so much because it adheres so closely to the
structure and detail of the ceremony outlined in the Yoginisamcara, including
such distinctive details as the pitching of the lines of the Mandala with a cord
soaked with human blood and made from the hair or sinews of a corpse (2.11),
the use of such substances as the five nectars of the body (pancamrtam) and the
ash and powdered charcoal of cremation pyres on the ground of the Mandala
(2.1-3), 479 the beating of a drum in its worship (3.2-3), and the marking of the
477 See here p. 190.
478 See 2.4ab: samyagjhdnatantrajhah srlherukamantrajhah; 2.13d: yajed
ddkinljdlasamvaram; and 3.7a: sriherukddipitha darsayet. The reading
mahdbhairavdbhimukhdm krtvd tu (2.18a) probably represents a first attempt to
differentiate the Buddhist version from its metrical Saiva prototype by adding
mahd-.
479 This substitution of inauspicious and dangerous substances in the preparation of
the Mandala is a marked feature of accounts of initiation found in Vidyapitha
texts. See, e.g., Picumata f. 5vl (3.12ab), concerning the Aghorimandala): asthi-
curnatadahgdraih mantrajno dlikhet puram 'The mantra-master should draw the
Mandala with powdered bone and charred bone'; f. 5v6 (3.31ab): smasdnotthena
sutrena sutrakdryam tu kdrayet 'He should do the outlining with a cord from
the cremation ground'; f. 10r2-3 (3.184—185): smasdnotthdni bhdnddni vas-
trasutrddikdni tu \ vastrai<r> dhvajd tu kartavyd sutrena karani tathd \\ kesair
darbhd<n> yathdnydyam *acchinndgrdn (corr. : acchinndgrdh Cod.) prakalpayet
| vestayen mandalam tais tu astrajaptaih samantatah 'The vases, cloths and cords
should be made with what has come from cremation grounds. With [funerall
shrouds he should make the banners and with threads [therefroml the pitch-
ing cord. With the hair [of corpses] he should provide the uncut-ended stems of
[protective] Darbha grass. After empowering them with the weapon[-mantra] he
should surround the mandala with them'; Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 4, f. 65v7
(Rdviniydgapatala, [concerning the Mandala of Ravini in the Kdlikula section of
the Jayadrathaydmalatantra], v. lOlcd: savasutrena samsutrya asthicurnddibhir
likhet 'He should colour [the Mandala] with powdered [human] bone and the like
after pitching its lines with a corpse-cord'; Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 3, f. 200r5-
6: sutrayed rudhirdktena *savasutrena (corr. : savasutrena Cod.) 'He should
outline the Mandala with a corpse-cord smeared with blood'. The nature of
this cord is indicated by Ksemaraja on Svacchandatantra 13.21b: mrtasutrena
vaksyamdnacchummakdyuktyd mrtasndyund 'The expression 'with a corpse-thread'
means 'with the sinew of a corpse' in accordance with the secret vocabulary to
be taught below'. He refers here to Svacchandatantra 15.5: sndyuh sutram
prakirtitam 'The word cord means sinew'. This understanding is also seen in Bud-
dhist Tantric literature. In his commentary (-pinddrthatikd) on the Hevajratantra
Vajragarbha glosses smasdnasutrena 'cremation ground cord' as ro'i rgyuspa mams
kyis byas pa'i srang bus 'a cord made from the sinews of a [human] corpse' (Snell-
grove 1959, Pt. 1, p. 51, n.l, who mistranslates this to refer to 'a thread made
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foreheads of the candidates with human blood (3.8). 480 It is more because the
redactor has not added what from the time of the Mahavairocanabhisambodhi
onwards had been the most marked characteristic of the Mantranaya's adap-
tation of Saiva Mandala initiation, namely the series of consecrations known
as abhisekah. The commentators evidently could not accept that this crucial
Buddhist signature might be absent. For they have resorted to strained exegesis
in order to impose it. Jayabhadra claims that the terse injunction to worship
the Mudra in 3.7 alludes to the guhyabhisekah, in which the Guru unites with
a consort (mudra) and the candidate swallows the semen. Then avoiding the
difficult task of reading in allusions to any of the six consecrations that normally
preceded this climactic act in his time he simply asserts that they should be
done following the procedure familiar from other Tantras. 481 Bhavabhatta,
however, adopts a more bold and imaginative strategy, finding all seven con-
front the guts of a corpse')- We also read of the use of the hair of corpses for
this purpose: Jayadrathayamala, Satka 3, f. 181r4: dlikhen mandalavaram tato
raudrena bhasmand | prathamam sutrayitvd tu savamurdhajarajjund 'He should
draw the excellent Mandala with human ash after first pitching its lines with a cord
of corpse-hair'; Siddhayogesvarlmata 8.8: narakesasamutthena karpdsddimayena
vd | sutrayen mandalam divyam sarvasiddhiphalodayam 'He should trace the ex-
cellent Mandala, which bestows the reward of all the Siddhis, with [a cordl made
from human hair or from fibres such as cotton'. This option is no doubt fixed:
cremation-ground substances for ascetics and conventional substances for house-
holders; see, e.g., Jayadrathayamala, Satka 2 f. 9v2 (VdmesvarTydgapatala, w.
48c— 49): vdmdmrtddibhir lipya tatra mandalam dlikhet || rajobhir *viramdrgasthas
(em. : viramdrgasthais Cod.) *cityahgdrddibhasmabhih (cityahgdrddi conj. :
citydhgdrddi Cod flc : citdhgdrddi Cod'") | ratnddisdlijdtais ca grhasthas cdlikhet
tatah 'Having smeared [the ground] with wine and the like he should draw the
Mandala upon it with powders such as the charcoal and ash of funeral pyres, if he
follows the path of Heroes, and with [ground] precious stones or rice flour [etc.], if
he is a housholder'.
480 Both versions say only that this is to be done 'with blood' (raktena). But a variant
specifying human blood (mahdraktena) is attested by the Tibetan translation (mt-
shal chen gsum Ian bzlas pa yis [mahdraktena trijaptena]) and the commentators
Durjayacandra (mtshal chen Ian gsum brzlaspayis), Viravajra (id.), and Indrabhuti
(mtshal chen ni).
481 Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjikd, p. 114, 11. 9-11: kulam tasya vinirdised (3.6)
itiparyantam sukaram eva | tadanantaram tantrdnantaraprasiddhena vidhind sar-
vam abhisekam nivartyeddnlm guhydbhisekavidhipradhdnatvdt pujayen mudrdm
(3.7) ityddind guhydbhisekam sucayati 'The text up to 'he should indicate his Fam-
ily' is easy. He now alludes to the guhyabhisekah with the words beginning 'he
should worship the Mudra'. He does so because this is the most important [of the
consecrations]. [It is should be understood that] 'he should worship the Mudra [i.e.
the consort] after he has completed the whole consecration [process that should be
performed] immediately after that [determining of the candidate's Family by cast-
ing the flower] following the procedure that is well known from other Tantras'. The
expression 'the whole consecration', though singular, should be understood to refer
to the whole sequence of the consecrations that precede the guhyabhisekah.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
secrations up to and including the guhyabhisekah in 3. 2-3. 3a.: ghantanadam
dlambya puspadhupair alamkrtdm \ ghantdm vddayet susvaram patahikdm
vdpi sddhakah \ hdhdkdram ca kdrayet 'Resorting to the resonance of the bell
the Sadhaka should ring the bell after it has been adorned with flowers and
[fumigated with] incense; or he may [beat] a drum. He should also laugh wildly'.
He asks us to accept that the ringing of the bell refers to the consecration of
[the giving of] the bell (ghantdbhisekah) 482 and, more astonishingly, that the
wild laughter enjoined, literally 'the sound hd ha', is the consecration of [the
giving of the initiatory] name (ndmdbhisekah). 483 Having conjured up these two
consecrations he then asserts that the three that precede them are therefore
implicitly intended, namely the consecration with water (udakdbhisekah), the
consecration with the crown (makutdbhisekah), and the consecration with the
Vajra (vajradhipatyabhisekah). 484 He then subjects this same passage to a
second reading in order to force it to refer also to the two consecrations that
follow these five: the deary abhisekah, which qualifies the initiate to officiate as a
Vajracarya, and the consecration of the secret (guhyabhisekah). He claims that
in this second reading the resonance of the bell, the ringing of the bell, and the
beating of the drum refer to the Guru's uniting for the purpose of the second of
these consecrations with a girl of twenty-five, twelve, or sixteen respectively 485
482 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 37, 1. 17: ghantanadam ityadina ghantd-
bhisekah pratipddyate 'The passage beginning with ghantanadam teaches the con-
secration of the bell'.
483 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika p. 38, 11. 6-7: hdhdkdram ca kdrayed iti |
hdhdkdro ndmdbhisekah \ tarn gurubhattdrakendtmanah kdrayet 'In the expression
"He should have the hdhdkdrah done", the hdhdkdrah is the consecration of the
name. He should have that done for himself by the venerable Guru'.
484 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 38, 1. 10: tata udakamaulivajrddhi-
patyabhisekdndm grahanam tatpurvakatvdt tayoh 'From this [reference to the con-
secrations of the bell and the name] it follows that the text also refers [by implica-
tion] to the consecrations of water, crown, and the Vajra Lord, because those two
have to be preceded by these [three]'. The five consecrations covered here are as in
Samvarodaya 18.27, where they are associated with the five Tathagatas.
485 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 38, 11. 13-14: ghantdnddah *svalihgd-
vasthitapahcavimsatikddhidhdnam (em. : svalihgdvasthitah pancavimsatikdbhi-
dhdnam Ed.) | ghantd dvddasdbdikd | patahikd sodasdbdikd | ghantdnddo vajra-
kulam | ghantd ratnakulam | patahikd padmakulam | hdhdkdras tathdgatakulam |
cakdrdd anyac ca | * ghantdnddddlndm anyatamdm dedryah sevayet (em. : ghantd-
dindm anyatamdnoedsevayet Ed.) | ghantanadam aho sukheti mantram sddhakah
sisyah kdrayed uccdrayed ity arthah | kuto 'nantaram ity aha | andmetyddi | andmd-
hgusthavaktrdbhydm lehayed yogavit sadd | somapdnavad dsvddya siddhim dpnoti
sdsvatlm (1.12c-13a) iti gdtheha yojitavyd | tato 'syd idam arthdntaram \purvokta-
prajhdsevayd yad bhutam tad andmdhgusthavaktrdbhydm dedryah sisyam lehayet
| sa ca sisyah tatah somapdnavad dsvddya siddhim dpnotlti guhydbhiseko 'yam 'The
resonance of the bell denotes a girl of twenty-five mounted on one's penis; the bell is
a girl of twelve; and the drum is a girl of sixteen. [In addition] the resonance of the
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Having made the text refer to the guhyabhisekah, he finds the acaryabhisekah
by using the same argument that he had employed to arrive at the full sequence
of the five consecrations that precede it, namely that its presence is entailed
by the supposed reference to the guhyabhisekah, because that requires it as its
antecedent. 486 He finds a reference to the final consecration that he needed to
discover here, that of wisdom (prajnabhisekah), in the statement in 3.7 that
Jayabhadra had taken to allude to the preceding guhyabhisekah: tatah pujayen
mudram acaryah susamahitah 'Then the Acarya, fully concentrated, should
worship the Mudra'. If, as is highly probable, the consecration understood by
Bhavabhatta here was the prajnajnanabhisekah of the initiation manuals, then
there would appear to a problem, because the active agent in that consecration
was not the Acarya but the candidate, who now unites with the consort himself.
Bhavabhatta is very terse at this point but it is likely that he was attempting to
remove this difficulty when he wrote that the text refers to the agent as Acarya
here because he is endowed with such qualities as self-control. I take him to
mean that it is indeed the candidate rather than the officiant that is the agent
here and that he is referred as an officiant only figuratively, because he has all
the qualities that are required of an officiant. 487 These readings are, of course,
bell is [a women of] the Vajra Family, the bell [one of] the Jewel Family, the drum
[one of] the Lotus Family, and the wild laughter [one of] the Tathagata Family. The
word 'and' [in 'and he should laugh wildly' indicates [one of] the other [Family, that
of Action]. The officiant should have intercourse with one or other of these women of
whom the first is 'the resonance of the bell'. The meaning is [also] that the Sadhaka,
[that is to say,] the candidate, should make, that is to say, utter, 'the resonance of
the bell', that is to say, the Mantra aho sukha ['Oh, Bliss']. He [also] tells us that
after which [he should utter this Mantra] in the passage [of this Tantra] that begins
with anama-. At this point one must read in the following verse (1.12c-13a) 'The
master of Yoga should always lick [it, taking it] with the tips of his ring finger and
thumb. Having relished it as though it were a draught of Soma he attains eternal
success'. So there is another sense of this [verse], namely that the officiant should
make the candidate take into his mouth [lit. 'lick'] the product of his sexual union
with the aforesaid consort with the tips of his ring finger and thumb; and that can-
didate, having relished it like a draught of Soma attains Siddhi. This, then, is the
guhyabhisekah' .
486 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 38, 11. 23-24: sa ca sisyah tatah
somapanavad asvadya siddhim apnotlti guhyabhiseko 'yam | ata ev acaryabhisekah
siddhah tatpurvakatvat tasya 'This is the guhyabhisekah. This itself establishes
the presence of the acaryabhisekah, because the former is preceded by the latter'.
487 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 39, 11. 21-22: tata ityadina prajnabhisekam
darsayati | tato guhyabhisekanantaram | acarya iti dhairyadigunayogat 'In the pas-
sage beginning tatah he reveals the Wisdom Consecration. The word tatah ('next')
means directly after the guhyabhisekah. He is termed the officiant [here] because
he has such qualities as self-control'. Bhavabhatta is probably alluding to the qual-
ities of the good Acarya as stated in vv. 8-9 of the Gurupancasika: dhiro vinlto
matiman ksamavan arjavo 'sathah | . . . .
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
artificial and could be imposed on the text only because Bhavabhatta, like
Jayabhadra, could not accept the possibility that there might be no reference to
the consecrations in a Buddhist Tantra's treatment of initiation.
Further exemplification of the direction of redaction can be seen in the first
of the new parallels listed above, that on the subject of the regular rite of wor-
shipping the Kulika (as the Laghusamvara has it). For ease of comparison I give
in bold characters those parts of each of the three related texts, the Picumata,
the Herukabhyudaya, and the Laghusamvara, that partly or completely corre-
spond to passages in one or both of the other two. The Picumata passage is as
follows:
mulasutrddikdndm tu kramam sadhanalaksanam \\
10 durlabham trisu lokesu samayacarapalanam \
ydgam vidhis tatha jnanam cakram yogam ca sobhanam ||
11 kathaydmi mahadevi yat tvayd coditam *balam (?) |
madhyamottamacchagena gandhodasahitena tu ||
12 vatikam prasayet prajnah pujakale visesatah \
vidhdnan tu sadd yojyam carvdhdrena suvrate \\
13 samaye sddhane caiva dravydlabhanakarmani |
tasyaiva dutayah siddhah sahaja viravandite \\
14 gurunddivibhdgena srstidravyddisamgrahe |
rtuyogaviyogena anulomavilomajd ||
15 ydgddhordhvagatd devi sarvakdmavilaksand |
kundagolodbhavenaiva svayambhukusumena ca ||
16 japahomarcanam sndnam bukapuspasamanvitam
niyojyam svena mdrgena svakdle ydgapurvakam \\
f. 319v3-5
lie madhyamottamacchagena em. : adhamottamacchdgena Cod. 488
The related passage in the Herukabhyudaya is accessible only in its Tibetan
translation. I give that here with a reconstruction of the Sanskrit of the parts
488 j propose this emendation for two reasons. The first is that the reading contradicts
information given later in this chapter. According to that there are three grades
of flesh for use in the preparation of the sacrament (caruh): goat, cow, and human.
The first is said to be inferior (adhama-), the second intermediate (madhyama-), and
the third superior (uttama-): adhamam cchdgam ity uktam madhyamam gobhavam
bhavet \ purusottamam mahadevi tridhd tu caravah smrtdh (f. 320r5— vl [84.36c—
37b]). Consequently without this emendation we have nonsense: 'with the inferior
[i.e. goat], the superior [i.e. human], and goat'. With it we have a statement that
is consistent with this classification: 'with the intermediate [i.e. cow], the superior
[i.e. human] and [the inferior, i.e.] goat. The second reason is that the emendation
has the support of the Buddhist parallels, which, as we shall see, read madhyamot-
tomasvdsena or madhyamottamocchvdsena here.
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that match the passage in the Picumata:
(15.6) sngags dang phyag rgya sbyar bar bya |
dam tshig thams cad bskyang bya ste |
jig rten gsum na rnyed dka' ba (durlabham trisu lokesu) |
g.yon nas skyes pas byed pa yin |
(7) dam tshig spyod pa'i mtshan nyid dang (samayacaralaksanam) \
sbyor nyid cho ga'i yi ge shes ni (yoga eva vidhijnanam) \
de ni nga yis bshad kyis nyon (tan me nigaditam srnu) \
dbugs dbyung mchog gi bar dag ni (madhyamottamasvasena) \
(8) dri yi chu dang bcas pa dang (gandhodakasahitena [tu]) |
rtag tu ril bu bza' par bya (vatikam prasayen nityam)
mchod pa'i dus kyi bye brag la (pujakalavisesatah) |
pho nyas lhan cig skyes dngos grub pa (dutayah sahajah siddha) |
(9) dman pa mchog dang 'bring mams kyi (adhamottamamadhyamah) \
de yis sbyor bas dngos grub 'gyur (tabhir yogena siddhih syat) \
'dod pa'i don kun sgrub pa'o (sarvakamarthasadhakah) |
dpal Idan he ru ka las byung (sriherukodbhavam) \
(10) rang byung me tog nyid dag gis (svayambhukusumair api) \
cho ga shes pas kun tu spyod (vidhijhanasamacara-) |
bzlas dang bsam gtan mchod pa dang (japadhyanapuja) |
me tog gcig dang yang dag Idan (ekapuspasamanvitam)
Khrag 'thung mngon par 'byung ba D f. 12r6— v2 (Herukdbhyudaya 15.6-10)
Testimonium — Kumaracandra, Katipayaksard nama Herukabhyudayapanjika,
p. 156: evam maya nigaditam. srnu \ madhyamottamasvasah panca pradipah
| gandhodakam pancdmrtdni \ vatikam prasya (Cod. [f. 3v6] : prapya Ed.)
*bhavanaganamandaladau (bhdvandgana corr. : bhavand gana Ed.) dutim
pujayet | adhamah mantrajah | uttamah sahajah | madhyamah ksetrajah |
tdbhih siddhih syat tasya yoginah.
The version of the Laghusamvara reads:
1.4 sambhavan nadarupad viniskrantah samayacaragocarah \
durlabham trisu lokesu adimadhyantasamsthitam \\
5 manthyamanthanasamyogam yatha tatha mantrajapadhydnadiyuktam |
yogas caiva vidhijnanam tantre nigaditam srnu \\
6 madhyamottamocchvasena gandhodakasahitena tu
kulikam pujayen nityam kalavisesena tu ||
7 dutayah sahajah siddha adhamottamamadhyamah \
f. lv2-5
6a madhyamottamocchvasena JAYABHADRA : madhyamottamasvasena Cod.
Bhavabhatta
The Herukdbhyudaya, then, shows a version that is closer than the
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Laghusamvara to the text of the Picumata in some details and covers more of
it. It is particularly striking that it preserves the Picumata's vatikam prasayet
prajnah pujakale visesatah (84.12ab), reading rtag tu ril bu bza' par by a \
mchod pa'i dus kyi bye brag la 'Let him always swallow the sacramental pellet,
especially at the time of worship', diverging from the Picumata only in having
nityam (rtag tu) and pujakalavisesatah where that has prajnah and pujakale
visesatah . That the Sanskrit read vatikam is shown by the gloss vatikam prasya
in the Herukabhyudayapahjika (f. 3v6).
Even so it shows signs of having had difficulty in understanding some of
the Saiva proto-text's technical terms and of having dealt with this difficulty by
resorting to rewriting. Thus in 15.10 me tog gcig dang yang dag Idan 'together
with a single flower' corresponds to bukapuspasamanvitam 'together with the
Buka flower' in Picumata 84.16, so that the Sanskrit may be restored from
the Tibetan with some confidence as ekapuspasamanvitam. The context is a
listing of impure ingredients to be consumed at the time of practice. Now, 'a
single flower' yields no appropriate sense in this context, whereas 'Buka flower'
{bukapuspam) does. For the Picumata tells us that in its secret vocabulary
bukam means 'the impurity of the male organ' (84.38a: buko lingamalo jneyas;
87.196d: bukam lingamalam smrtam), and the Kubjikamata tells us that
bukapuspam has the same meaning (25.226ab: bukapuspa kanakhyam ca
lingapankamalam tatha). It is probable that the Buddhist redactor, failing to
understand this obscure term, modified the text to produce something that had
at least the appearance of sense. Kumaracandra confirms the reading ekapuspa-
in his Herukabhyudayapanjika and ventures to explain it as 'the blood of a
[woman's] first menstruation': ekapuspam prathamam rajah vajrapadmabhyam
sadhyamanam kapalastham (p. 156) '[After putting it] in a skull-bowl [he should
swallow] the 'one flower', i.e. the first menses, produced by the penis and vagina'.
But this gloss is not only strained: it also leads the text into an implausible
repetition, since the blood of first menstruation has just been mentioned in
15.10a, in the term rang byung me tog (= svayambhukusumam). He also seems
not to have understood the expression kundagolodbhava- seen in Picumata
84.15c (kundagolodbhavenaiva), another 'secret' Vidyapitha term, referring to
the mingled ejaculates. He resolves his quandary by substituting the name of
his deity, the Tibetan dpal Idan he ru ka las byung (15. 9d) evidently rendering
sriherukodbhavam.
In the abbreviated version seen in the Laghusamvara we have kulikam
pujayen nityam 'let him constantly worship the Kulika' in place of the reading
vatikam prasayen nityam seen in the Herukabhyudaya and in the Saiva proto-
text. This is evidently the result of a corruption of a redaction which read not
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vatikam but the exact synonym gulikam; 489 and this hypothesis is confirmed by
the Abhidhdnottara, which in its own first chapter preserves gulikam in a pas-
sage modelled on these verses of the Laghusamvara, thus bearing witness to a
stage of the redaction of this text that is earlier even than that known to our ear-
liest commentator, since Jayabhadra accords with all later witnesses in reading
kulikdm here:
1.7 nadarupad viniskranta samayacaragocaram
durlabham trisu lokesu ddimadhydntanirmalam ||
8 manthamanthdnayogena samyogad yatra yat tathd |
prakrtiprabhasvaram suddham guhyapithodbhavodbhavam ||
9 nirdosam sasvatam sdntam khasamam srstikdrakam |
svabhdvasuddham svayambhutam yoginindm sukhapradam \\
10 jdpadhydnddibhir yuktam yogasyaiva vidhijnatd |
tantre nigaditam tattvam guhyakddhipate srnu ||
11 madhyamottamasvasena gandhodakasahitena tu |
gulikam karayed dhiman pujayet parsamandalam 490 ||
12 kalavelavisesena pujayet tatra dutayah |
sahajah siddhidah sarvd adhamottamamadhyamdh ||
13 antargatena manasd kamasiddhim tu sddhayet
Abhidhdnottara A f. 2r2-6; B f. 2r4-v3
7ab nadarupad em. : nddarupo B : nddaru + A • viniskranta samayacaragocaram
B : + + + + + + cdragocaram A 7d nirmalam A : nirmmalah B 8b samyogad yatra
tatra yathd B : sayogdd yatra yat tathd A : *yatra tatra yathd tathd (Tib. srub dang
bsrub par yang dag sbyor | gang la de la ji Itar bzhin) 8cd prakrtiprabhasvaram
suddham guhyapithodbhavodbhavam B : prakrtiprabhdsva + + + + + +
thodbhavodbhavam A 9a sasvatam A : sdsanam B 9c suddham svayambhutam
conj. [= Tib. dag pa rang byung ste] : suddhasambhutam B : suddham adbhutam
A lOab dhydnddibhir yuktam yogasyaiva B : dhydnddibhir yu + + + + va A •
jhatd A :jneyd B
The otherwise unattested kulikdm was then construed by force to mean yoginlm
'a/the Yoginf, and the verb prasayet 'let him swallow', since it now made no sense,
altered to pujayet 'let him worship'. 491
489 For gulikd (variant forms: gutikd andgudikd) see here p. 217.
490 The reading of lie is further supported by the Tibetan translation: mkhas pas dril
bur byas nas ni. Note that dhimdn (mkhas pas) here is synonymous with prdjnah
found at the corresponding point in the version seen in the Picumata (vatikam
prasayet prdjnah). This, then, has probably survived from the Saiva source on
which the first Buddhist version drew.
491 Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjikd, p. 20: kulikayogini | tarn pujayed drddhayet
| nityarn sarvakdlam pratidinam ity arthah '[The word] kulikd [means] yogini. It
is she that he should propitiate [in this way]; and he should do so constantly, at
all times, that is to say, every day'. Cf Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjikd, p. 110:
kulikdm iti tantre samayabhdsd \ vajravdrdhisvarupdm bdhydngandm pujayed
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
That the Buddhist versions arose from Saiva prototypes is clear from the
detailed analysis of these and many other parallels. Other features reinforce
this conclusion. In all cases the Saiva passages fit neatly into the contexts in
which they occur, without ragged edges, as it were, at their beginning and end,
whereas this is often not so with the parallels in the Buddhist texts, a circum-
stance that fits well with a scenario in which the latter where constructed by a
rather careless process of extraction, insertion, and superficial editing.
The same is suggested by the high degree of divergence between the various
Buddhist commentators in their attempts to tell us what these new texts mean.
They were caught out, as it were, by new materials that lacked roots in the
Buddhist textual corpus in which they were trained. They did their best to make
sense of what were in many cases barely intelligible passages; but without much
guidance from existing Buddhist sources and with no central authority to impose
consistency on their efforts they were bound to diverge.
We have a good example of this in the passage just discussed, in the words
madhyamottamasvasena gandhodakasahitena tu . . . . The meaning of the Saiva
prototype as seen in the version of the Picumata, namely madhyamottamaccha-
gena gandhodasahitena tu \ vatikam prasayet prajnah, is perfectly clear to any-
one who has read the whole chapter of which it is part. It means 'The wise
[initiate] should swallow a pellet made from beef, human flesh, or goat mixed
with scented water'. 492 The case is very different with the Buddhist versions.
Their madhyamottamasvasena surely began life as a copyist's corruption; for it
yields no sense in either Saiva or Buddhist terms in the context of this rite of
the pellet or, indeed, in any other. Kumaracandra, therefore, in his commen-
tary on the passage as it appears in the Herukabhyudaya, could only guess at
the meaning on the basis of the one part of the sentence that made undoubted
sense, namely the injunction to swallow a pellet. Knowing that such pellets were
made in practice from the five meats and the five body nectars he tells us that
madhyamottamasvasah 'the intermediate and upper breath' means those meats
and that the gandhodakam 'scented water' with which this 'breath' is to be mixed
iti | yathd samtoso jdyate tathd karanlyam ity arthah 'The word kulikam is used in
[this] Tantra following [its own special] convention. It refers to the physical woman
[who is the practitioner's consort, when she is perceived as] identical with Va-
jravarahi. He should worship her, which means that he should do whatever is neces-
sary to satisfy her'. In his Kdlacakra -influenced commentary on the Laghusamvara
(Laghutantratikd) Vajrapani interprets kulikd more esoterically as referring to Va-
jravarahi as the non-conceptual central energy-channel: kulikam pujayen nityam
iti | iha kulikd madhyamdvadhuti vajravdrdhi nirdvarand grdhyagrdhakavarjitd
(p. 59).
492 See the footnote on my emendation madhyamottamacchdgena on p. 212.
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The Saiva Age
means those nectars. 493
Jayabhadra and Bhavabhatta commenting on the same expression when it
occurs in the Laghusamvara, where the second part of the sentence has emerged
through further confusion as kulikam pujayet, impose quite different but equally
arbitrary interpretations, which are based not on the text itself but, in the ab-
sence of evident meaning, on their own notions of what the text ought to be
saying here. Thus Jayabhadra, who has the variant madhyamottamocchvasena,
makes madhyama- mean 'vagina', uttamocchvasah 'the placing of the tongue',
and gandhodakam 'semen', interpreting the sentence to mean that the adept
should worship the Kulika, that is to say, his female consort identified with
Vajravarahi, by placing his tongue (uttamocchvasena) together with his semen
(gandhodakasahitena) in her vagina {madhyama-). , 494
493 Kumaracandra, Herukabhyudayapahjika, p. 156: madhyamottamasvasah pahca
pradlpah | gandhodakam pahcamrtani 'The word madhyamottamasvasah means
the five 'lights'; and gandhodakam means the five nectars'. On the five lights
and five nectars see, e.g., Vagisvaraklrti, Tattvaratndvalokavivarana 18: panca-
pradipasabdena gokudahanalaksanasya amrtasabdena vimumarasulaksanasya
satatanusthanam eva sadhyam manyante '[The learned] hold that the expres-
sion pancapradipa- refers to the accomplished regular practice of the [five meats]
of the cow (go-), dog (kufkkura]-), horse (dafmya]-), elephant (hafsti]-), and
man (na[ra]-), and the expression amrta- to that of excrement (vi[t]-), urine
(mu[tra]-), flesh (mafmsa]-), blood (ra[kta]-), and semen (su[kra]-)\ Cf. Jaya-
bhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 108: adau tavan manonukule sthane nisadya
pancamrtakrtagulikam mukhe krtva . . . 'At the beginning [before he begins the
Sadhana] he should sit in a place conducive to meditation, place a pellet of the
five nectars in his mouth, ...'; Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 24: goku-
dahananam pancdmrtasya ca vatikam bhavanarambhe bhaksayet At the begin-
ning of his meditation he should swallow a pellet consisting of [the flesh of] cow,
dog, horse, elephant, and man, and the five nectars'; Sadhanamala 251 (Advaya-
vajra, Saptaksarasadhana), p. 490: yogi pratar utthaya samayagulikam mukhe
praksipya . . . 'The meditator, having risen before sunrise and placed a Samaya
pellet in his mouth . . . '. The term samaya- in samayagulika means the five nectars;
see Bhavabhatta, Cakrasamvarapanjika p. 18: samayapalanam samayaraksanam
pancamrtabhaksanam 'maintaining the samaya- means keeping the pledges [and]
swallowing the five nectars'; Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 109: samayo
dvividhah raksaniyo bhaksaniyas ca 'The samayah is of two kinds: that which is to
be maintained [i.e. the post-initiatory pledges] and that which is to be swallowed
[i.e. the five nectars]'.
494 Jayabhadra, Cakrasamvarapanjika, p. 110 : madhye bhavatiti madhyamah |
padma ucyate | tasminn uttamocchvaso jihvavinyasah \ tena kimbhutena | gandho-
dakasahitena tu bodhicittasahitenaivety arthah | kulikam iti tantre samayabhasa
| vajravarahlsvarupam bahyahganam pujayed iti \ yatha samtoso jayate tatha
karaniyam ity arthah 'The word madhyama- , meaning 'that which is in the centre',
refers to the Lotus [i.e. the vagina]. The word uttamocchvasah means 'the placing
of the tongue' [and madhyamottamocchvasena is a locative Tatpurusa compound
meaning 'by the placing of (his) tongue] in that. The words gandhodakasahitena tu
'together with the scented water' describe that [placing of his tongue in her vagina]
and mean that it should be together with [his] Intention to Attain Enlightenement
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
In Bhavabhatta's commentary we find an entirely different understanding.
According to him madhyamottamasvdsena gandhodakasahitena tu \ kulikam
pujayet means 'he should worship the Yogini with the place or time (-svasena)
of fire (madhyama-) and earth (-uttama-) together with wind (gandha-) and
water {udaka-)\ The purpose of this invention, which the Sanskrit entirely
fails to support, is to find a reference (1) to the symbols of the four elements as
constituting the thrones of the various groups of Yoginis in the Mandala and (2)
to various time periods considered to be governed by these elements as the occa-
sions for the successful performance of rituals for hostile purposes (abhicarah),
re-invigoration (paustikam), expulsion (uccdtanam), and the averting of danger
(santikam) respectively That Bhavabhatta has decided what he would like to
find here and then imposed it is clear from the extreme artificiality of the glosses
that bend the text to his will: 'the intermediate' (madhyama-) is fire (vahnih)
because it is falls in the middle of the list of the four elements (actually in the
penultimate position); the 'highest' (-uttama-) is that of Mahendra, the presiding
deity of the symbol of earth (prthivl), because he is the king of the gods; gandhah
means not 'fragrance', its lexical meaning, but 'that which possesses fragrance',
namely the wind (vayuh), since that is the bearer of fragrance; udaka- is not
udakam 'water' but an unattested udakah meaning Varuna, literally 'he who
possesses the waters', since Varuna is the presiding deity of the symbol of water
(udakam); and svasah means not 'breath' but 'that in which X breathes', that is
to say, by an entirely unwarranted leap, the locus or time of X's operation. 495
[i.e. his semen]. The word kulika is a term specific to the esoteric jargon of this
Tantra. It denotes the physical woman [as] identical with Vajravarahi. By saying
that one should 'worship' her the text means that one must do what is necessary to
satisfy her'.
495 Bhavabhadra, Cakrasamvarapahjika , p. 20: madhyama uttamah svasity asminn
aneneti va \ svasah sthanam kalo va \ madhyamo vahnih prthivyaptejovayava iti
vacanena madhyodbhavatvat | \madhyodbhutatve py upayagrahanam yatas tarn
vaksyati] | uttamo mahendro devarajatvat | madhyamottamayoh svasah sthanam
kalo vety arthah | tena kulikam pujayed iti sambandhah | kimbhutenety aha gandhe-
tyadi \ gandho 'syastiti gandho gandhavahatvad vayuh \ udakam asyastity udako
varunah | tayoh sthanena sahito gandhodakasahita iti madhyapadalopT samasah
ghrtapurno ghato ghrtaghato yathd 'The term svasah is to be understood here to be
derived from the root svas 'to breath' in the meaning 'that in which X breathes', X in
this case being madhyamah and uttamah. The svasah, then, is the locus of these or
their time-period. The madhyamah 'intermediate' is 'fire', because it arises in the
middle, in accordance with the text 'earth, water, fire, and wind'; and the uttamah
'highest' is the [symbol] of Mahendraf, the presiding deity of the earth symbol], be-
cause he is the king of the gods. So the meaning of madhyamottamasvasah is 'the
locus or time of the madhyamah and the uttamah'. With this he should worship
the Kulika. Such is the core syntax. The compound beginning gandha- describes
this svasah further as 'accompanied by gandha- and udaka-', meaning 'together
with the locus of these [other] two (gandhodakasthanasahitah). This is a com-
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The Saiva Age
Since these confused and barely comprehensible verses are found in the
opening chapter of the Laghusamvara the redactor has made a greater effort
than usual to assimilate them to their new Buddhist milieu. But he has not
done this by rewriting them in such a way that Buddhists would recognize and
understand them as formulated within their own established discourse. His ap-
proach is rather that of montage or bricolage, in which bits and pieces of various
texts have been clumsily combined. Instead of rewriting the verses he has sand-
wiched them between others derived from well-known Buddhist sources. Thus
the opening verses of the work (1.1-3), which immediately precede this pas-
sage, are a version of the opening of the Buddhist Sarvabuddhasamayoga; 496
and the verses (1.7c-13b) that follow it contain awkwardly collocated variants of
verses found in that text and the Buddhist Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha and
Guhyasamaja. 497
But this attempt to lend the compilation a Buddhist character by embedding
the passage from the Saiva Vidyapitha between verses that Buddhist Tantrics
would immediately recognize as Buddhist is mostly restricted to this first sec-
tion. The rest of the work up to the point at which the redaction known to Jaya-
pound of the type in which an intermediate word is dropped, as when one says 'a
pot of ghee' (ghrtaghatah) when what one means is 'a pot full of ghee'. The other
two are gandhah and udakah. The first is a primary derivative of gandhah 'fra-
grance' in the meaning 'that which has fragrance' and refers to the wind, because
that is the bearer of fragrance. The second is [likewise] a primary derivative of
udakam 'water' in the meaning 'that which has water', i.e. Varunaf, the God of Wa-
ter]'. The application of this explanation then follows. One is instructed to meditate
on the Yoginis one by one in a fixed order of rotation tied to the passage of time.
Thus on the first Tithi of the lunar fortnight one meditates on the first eight Yo-
ginis during the day-time, each for one eighth of the day, the second eight during
the eight half Praharas of the night, the third eight during the day of the second
Tithi, the fourth eight during the night, and so on. Bhavabhatta explains there that
the three eights that make up the 24 Yoginis associated with the sacred sites must
have the symbols of fire, water, and earth as their thrones (pp. 21-22: devindm
asanam vahnimandalam iti dinabhagah; devindm asanam vdrunamandalam iti
rdtribhdgah; devindm mdhendramandalam asanam iti dinabhagah). This, evi-
dently, is what he means by svdsah in the sense of 'place'. He explains its sec-
ond meaning as 'time' in the following: agnyddiyogo 'py abhicdrddau tathaiva
jheyah | yathdbhicdre cittacakrasya vahniksane sdntike vdkcakrasya varunaksane
paustike kdyacakrasya mdhendraksane uccdtane smasdnacakrasya vdyuksane yo-
ginindm anyatamd bhdvyd 'This application of fire and the others should also be
understood in the case of hostile rites and the like. Thus in a hostile rite one should
meditate on one of the Yoginis of the Circuit of Mind (the first eight) at a fire mo-
ment, on one of those of the Circuit of Speech (the second eight) at a Varuna moment
in a rite to avert danger, on one of those of the Circuit of the Body (the third eight) at
a Mahendra moment in a rite of re-invigoration, and on one of those of the Circuit of
the Cremation Grounds (the fourth eight) at a wind moment in a rite of expulsion'.
3 See here p. 154.
7 See here p. 163, parallels 1, 5, and 6.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
bhadra and Bhavyakirti ends consists almost entirely of (1) sections for which
I have found close Saiva parallels, (2) sections for which I have not found such
parallels but which are of the same type, and (3) sections devoted to giving the
Mantras. These, of course, have not been lifted directly from Saiva sources, be-
cause the Mantras so taught are peculiar to this and related Tantras. However,
the Mantras themselves are Saiva in style; and the method of teaching them by
giving them letter by letter in encoded form (mantroddharah) has been adopted
in imitation of Saiva scriptural practice, appearing first, as we have seen, in the
Sarvakalpasamuccaya that supplements the proto-Yoginitantra Sarvabuddha-
samayoga. 498 In the light of this one readily understands why the redactor of
the version known to Bhavabhatta and the other later commentators and seen
in the one accessible manuscript and the Tibetan translation felt the need to
add explicitly Buddhist material at the end of the work, thus accomplishing for
the whole an unambiguously Buddhist frame, which in the earlier redaction had
been present only in the first chapter. 499
Converting the Outsiders. The textual dependence of these Buddhist
Yoginitantras on the scriptural corpus of the Vidyapitha would surely have been
obvious to any learned Sakta Saiva who examined them; and there is evidence
that it was indeed noticed. We do not find this evidence in the Tantric Saiva
literature, since the only historical data that intrude there are the spiritual ge-
nealogies of its teachers. For the rest it is concerned purely with what it sees
as the timeless realities of fact and injunction, and it is interested in relations
between its own and other traditions only to the extent that it establishes a hi-
erarchy among these traditions by ranking their various goals along an ascent
that culminates in its own. If awareness of this textual dependence was to find
expression in Saiva literature then it could only be in the distorting mirror of
mythology, where the specifics of the tensions between sects could be translated
498 See here p. 154.
499 rp^g S p ec i a i character of the added, 51st chapter is indicated in the spiritual biogra-
phy (mam thar) of Tilopa ascribed to Marpa (Mar pa chos kyi bio gros). For there
the Jnanadakini and her retinue are said to have taught it to Tilopa together with
the oral transmission (TORRICELLI and Naga 1995, p. 12): gsungs nets rtsa rgyud
le'u nga gcig pa bshad rgyud dang bcas pa dang snyan rgyud gnang ngo. The ex-
tended Tantra was already current when at least some of the Vyakhyatantras were
redacted. The Adhidhanottara contains 50.20c-51.12b. It is possible that the text
was extended first only to this point. Parts of the 50th chapter after this point are
seen in the Samputodbhava: 50.21-23b and 24ab > Samputodbhava 5.1.16-19b;
and 50.25 > Samputodbhava 5.1.19cd. Verses from the remainder of the longer
text, from 51.12c to the end, are found in the Yoginisamcara and the Samvarodaya:
51.7ab > Yoginisamcara 17.10ab; 51.13c-16b > Yoginisamcara 17.21c-24b; 51.18-19
> Samvarodaya 32.29c-30b; and 51.21d > Samvarodaya 32.31d.
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The Saiva Age
into accounts of the interaction of the gods with demons and men. Thus we find
our evidence in a variant of the famous narrative of Siva's burning of the celestial
cities of the three demons (tripuradahanam) given in the Haracaritacintamani,
a collection of Saiva myths for the instruction of the laity compiled in the thir-
teenth century by the Kashmirian Sakta Saiva Jayadratha. 500
According to that account Brhaspati, the ingenious Guru of the gods, puts
an end to the invincibility of these demons, the reward of their devotion to Siva,
by fooling them into abandoning the worship of that deity He composes and in-
troduces to them various texts for the visualization of Buddhist deities in which
Siva and other Saiva deities are portrayed as their inferiors. Then, once they
have become used to these, he adds Mantras by adapting those of the Saiva
Tantras and composes passages giving instruction in Tantric ritual procedures
by cobbling together various excerpts from the same sources. Finally, he com-
poses Buddhist treatises which supplement this Tantric corpus with reasoned
arguments designed to undermine the demons' commitment to their rites and
belief in God: 501
500 Jayadratha was the brother of Jayaratha, author of the Tantrdlokaviveka, on whose
date see Sanderson 2007a, pp. 418-419. That Jayadratha shared his brother's
Sakta Saiva adherence, in keeping with the family's long-established tradition, is
evident throughout his work, but particularly in the opening verses of each chap-
ter, in which he gives a metaphysical reading of the myth that follows. Thus in
13.1, introducing this narrative of the destruction of the three cities, whose point
is to glorify the Kashmirian sacred site of the volcanic fire-Linga (jvdldlihgam) at
Suyam (Svayambhu) (on which see Stein 1900, vol. 2, pp. 484-485), he equates
the three cities with the cognizer, cognition, and the cognized differentiated in
contracted consciousness, and the fire that destroys them with the all-inclusive
nonduality whose emergence bestows liberation: etad vedakavedyavedanamayam
dagdhvd purdndm trayam purnddvairahutdsanena samayan mdydmayopadravam
\jvdldlihgatayd *sphurah (A : sphuraj Ed.) jagadanugrdhl svayambhur asau devah
samprati bhdsatdm mama param ullasayan nirvrtim 'May that god Svayambhu
blaze forth for me now, revealing the highest bliss, he who has favoured the world
by manifesting himself as the fire-Linga after burning these three cities that are
the cognizer, the cognized, and cognition, putting an end to the torment of bound
existence with the fire of all-inclusive nonduality'. This is exactly in the conceptual
mode of the Sakta Saiva nondualism of Kashmir.
501 Haracaritacintamani 13.61—83: ripunam bhagavadbhaktir vijaye mulakaranam
| sa saithilyam avapnoti kena yatnena cintyatam || 62 tatrabhyupayah prdyena
kascit samcintito maya \ sukrasya samnidhdne tu kathamkdram pragalbhate ||
63 tesam hitam *prdpayitum (conj. : prdrthayitum Codd. Ed.) sukra eva dine
dine \ bhagavadbhaktiddrdhydya prayatnam adhitisthati || 64 svayam yady api
He (Codd. : ye Ed.) bhaktds tathdpy aisvaryagarvitdh | mitaprajnas ca yojyante
helayaiva viparyaye \\ 65 ity uktavan mahendrena *prcchyate (A 7 ": prcchate Ed.
A'"BC) sma sa kautukat | bhagavan bruhi tarn yuktim tesam lihgdrcandpaham
|| 66 srutveti so 'bravit pasya prayah sarve 'pi sarvada | uttarottaram utkarsam
jnatva rajyanti jantavah \\ 67 tad Isvarad rte ko 'tra sarvesam murdhani sthitah
| svavikalpena tasyapi kascid urdhvastha ucyate || 68 evam maydmayam tesam
varnyate svopakalpitam \ sdstram ca darsyate kimcil likhitvd nijayd dhiyd \\
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
[Brhaspati:] "The root cause of the victory of our enemies is their devotion to Siva.
We must think carefully what will cause that to fade. I have already thought in
general terms of a means of accomplishing that. But how[, I wonder,] will it suc-
ceed while [their Guru] Sukra is with them? For he exerts himself day after day
to strengthen their devotion to the Lord in order to *secure (conj.) their welfare.
[But] although they are genuinely devoted [to Siva] they are proud of their power
and of low intelligence. It should therefore be easy to lead them astray". When he
had said this Indra eagerly asked him to explain the stratagem that would put an
end to their worship of the Linga. Having heard this he replied and said: "Behold.
All persons usually assign their devotion on the basis of their understanding of an
ascending hierarchy. Who but Siva is at the summit [of this hierarchy], surpass-
ing all [others]? Nonetheless I shall use my imagination and tell [them] that there
is a being above even him. In this way I shall give them false instruction of my
own invention. I shall also use my wits to compose and show them some learned
writing [in support of my teaching]. I shall deceitfully write visualization-texts
of deities in relation to whom this Siva will be placed in a position of inferiority,
and I shall tell them that these show that there is another being who is greater
even than him, so that they may give up their worship of the Linga and so be de-
stroyed. However, these false teachings will have no effect while Sukra is present.
69 dhydndni devatdndm ca likhyante tdni kaitavdt \ ydsdm mahesvaro py esa
nyagbhdvena *nivesyate (Codd. : nyavesyate Ed.) || 70 evam mahesvardd anya
utkrsta iti kathyate | tesdm yato bhavel lihgapujdsaithilyatah *ksatih (Ed. :
ksitih A : matih BC) || 71 sukrasya samnidhdne tu prathante na kaduktayah
| *sa pratityopapattyd (A : sapratlpopapattyd Ed. BC) ca paramdrthavisdradah
|| 72 ity uktavdn dhgiraso vdsavena sagauravam \ abhyarthyate sma sd yuk-
tir akhandd kathyatdm iti || 73 uvdca sa tatah *sakram (A : sukram Ed. BC)
dkalayya brhaspatih | bhavato bhagavallihgavaimukhye nauciti kvacit || 74 esdm
upapldvayitum *matim (BC : bhaktim A : satyam Ed.) esa mama kramah |
buddher dgatam ity etad darsanam bauddham ucyate || 75 buddhah prasiddhas
tatraikah *samkalpyeta (Codd. : samkalpeta Ed.) *suresvarah (Ed. AC : suresvara
B) | dhydne yacchatradhartrtve likhyante kdrandny api || 76 ganapatyddayo ye
ca saivd atyuttamdh sthitdh | tesdm murdhani likhyante devd bauddhd *aml iti
(Codd. : amlti ca Ed.) || 77 mithyopakalpitdny evam dhydndny dlokya ddnavdh |
sivdd utkarsavanto 'mi iti *muhyanty asamsayam (AB Ed. : muhyanti samsayam
C). 78 evam dhydnesu siddhesu prasiddhim *lambhitesu (A Ed. : lambitesu BC)
ca | saivatantrdnuvddena mantrdn api niyojaye || 79 uddhrtya sivasdstrebhyah
khanddn khanddn niyojaye | mantratantrddikam krtyam yat kimcic copakalpi-
tam || 80 bandhamoksavyavasthdydm sdstram yac ca viracyate \ tatra *tivratarah
prajhdprakarsah (tivratarah Codd. : tivratara Ed.) *pariposakah (Codd. : pari-
tosakah Ed.) || 81 lihgdrcanddikas tatra bandhas tdvan nigadyate | muktis tu
sunyataiva sydd itikartavyahdrinl || 82 yajnddikd kriyd *yeyam (A : seyam Ed.
BC) sa tatra pratihanyate | dtmd ndstlti samcintya dusyate paramesvarah || 83
evamvidham mayd sdstram viracayya puramdara \ hrdi *pravesya (conj. : pravisya
Codd. Ed.) bhagavadbhaktis tesdm vihanyate || 84 *sukrasydsamnidhdnam (Codd.
: sukrasya samnidhdnam Ed.) tu tatra siddhyai *pratiksyate (Codd. : pratiksate
Ed.).
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The Saiva Age
[For] he, through intuition and reason, is fully conversant with ultimate reality".
Thus said the Atharvavedic priest [of the gods]. Then Indra respectfully asked
him to explain the stratagem more fully. After some reflection Brhaspati said to
Indra: "It is entirely inappropriate that it should be you that has to divert [these
demons] from the worship of Siva's Liriga. [So I shall take on this task myself]
My way of destroying their understanding will be this. I shall call this teaching
Buddhist, [appropriately enough] since it will be born of [nothing more than] my
intellect (buddhih). The well-known Buddha will be conceived therein as the sole
lord of the gods. Even the greatest deities will be portrayed as his chowry-bearers.
Gods that I shall call Buddhist will be depicted positioned on top of Ganapati and
others of the highest Saiva deities. When the demons see these falsely conceived
visualization-texts they will certainly make the mistake of thinking that these
gods are greater than Siva. Once these texts have been established and I have
accustomed the demons to them I shall introduce Mantras modelled on [those of]
the Saiva Tantras (saivatantrdnuvddena) and by redacting various passages from
these same scriptures (uddhrtya sivasdstrebhyah khanddn khanddn) I shall add
a worthless, concocted system of [Tantric] observances involving Mantras, ritual,
and the rest. The learned [Buddhist] literature that I shall compose to define
bondage and liberation will be nourished by higher reasoning of an exceptional
degree of rigour. It will explain, of course, that of these two bondage includes such
activities as worshipping the Lihga; and liberation will be [defined as] a voidness
[of self] that [once accepted] will subvert [their commitment to their] religious
duties. Their sacrifices and other rituals will be opposed there; and coming to be-
lieve [though this teaching] that there is no soul they will denigrate Siva himself
[for teaching otherwise]. Indra, when I have composed learned teachings of this
kind I shall insinuate them into their hearts and so put an end to their devotion
to Siva. For the plan to succeed we have only to wait until Sukra is absent".
Brhaspati's plan works. The demons' Saiva Guru leaves for a year to attend a
sacrifice. Brhaspati takes on his appearance and thus disguised sets about con-
verting them to Tantric Buddhism. They become so anti-Saiva that they can no
longer bear even to mention the Sivalihga, let alone worship it, 502 thus making
it possible for Siva to destroy them.
Evidently the Buddhist Tantric scriptures that Brhaspati is represented
here as having concocted are the Yoginitantras as typified by the Laghusamvara
and its satellites; 503 and the fact that this understanding of the nature of the
502 Haracaritacintdmani 13.127c-128b: Hatahprabhrti (A : taddprabhrti Ed. B) te
daitydh sivabhaktipardhmukhdh | asahanta na lihgasya ndmdpi kim utdrcanam.
503 That this is the Buddhism envisaged here is in keeping with another anti-Buddhist
myth in this collection (Haracaritacintdmani, chapter 17 and SANDERSON 1995b,
p. 94 for a summary). For there the adherents of Buddhism are said to be led by
three demons: Heruka, Samvara (the two Vajradakas), and Adibuddha (Kalacakra).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
genesis of these texts appears in a work of this kind suggests that it was com-
mon knowledge. For the Haracaritacintamani, being concerned with the cults of
Siva at sacred sites, is not addressed to the narrow community of the initiated
but to the widest possible audience for a Saiva text in Sanskrit, that is to say,
the uninitiated Saiva laity Nor can this text be seen in spite of this as reflecting
the knowledge of a learned minority at the time of its composition. For between
the opening and closing verses of each chapter the text is written in a rather
unpolished style that is so similar to that of the anonymous Puranic tracts in
praise of sacred sites that it should not be seen as a composition in the full sense
of that term but rather as a compilation in which Jayadratha has lightly edited
pre-existent materials of this popular genre. 504
The redactional relation between the Yoginitantras and Saiva Tantras of the
Vidyapitha may not, of course, have been so obvious to learned Buddhists once
these texts had been propagated and the work of commentary undertaken, let
17.4: mdydsambariko ndmnd herukdkhyas ca ddrunah \ adibuddhabhidhanas
cety asurds traya asate; 17.9: vajraddkdv iti khydtau tadd herukasambarau |
adibuddhena sahitau surdndm cakratur bhayam. Heruka here is evidently Heva-
jra, since he is described as eight-headed, four-legged, sixteen-armed, and em-
braced by Nairatmya (17.5). He leads the Buddhists in their war against the gods.
He is surrounded by an army of Madhyamikas (madhyamandmdnah), followers of
the Mantranaya (mantranaydtmakdh), bhramamohdtmakah, mithyajndndtmakdh ,
Sravakas (srdvakdtmdnah), and Buddhas copulating with their consorts (17.7-8).
The meaning of the terms bhramamohdtmakah and mithyajndndtmakdh is not
immediately obvious. Since it is clear from the context that they refer to dis-
tinct groups among the Buddhists (bhramamohdtmakah kecin mithyajndndtmakdh
pare) I take them to mean 'those who are devoted to the delusion of [the ob-
jective existence of] non-objective cognitions') and 'those who are devoted to
the view that [belief in this reality of] cognitions [containing the appearance
of their objects] is false', understanding these expressions to refer to the two
kinds of Yogacaras, those who hold mind-only with form and mind-only with-
out form respectively to be ultimately real, that is to say Sakaravijfianavadins
and Nirakaravijnanavadins. Classifying Mahayana Buddhists into Madhyamikas
and these two kinds of Yogacaras and the classification of all these into those
who follow the Mantranaya and those who do not, that is to say, those who
follow the non-Tantric Paramitanaya, is a commonplace in the doxographical
tradition of late Indian Buddhism; see, e.g., Advayavajra, Tattvaratndvali, pp.
4-8; Sahajavajra, Sthitisamdsa ff. 4vl-6r2 (nirdkdrayogdcdrasthitisamdsah), ff.
6r2-7rl (sdkdrayogdcdrasthitisamdsah), ff. 7rl-llr3 (madhyamdsthitisamdsah),
and ff. Ilr3-18v5 (Mantranaya); Vagisvarakirti, Tattvaratndvalokavivarana, pp.
141—142 (mantranaye ca vijndnavddamadhyamakamatayor eva pradhdnatvdt . . . );
Moksakaragupta, Tarkabhdsd, pp. 107-110; and Kajiyama 1998, pp. 148-151,
154-158.
504 Consider Jayadratha's own statement at the beginning of the work (1.5):
dese srivijayesasya nivasan prerandt tayoh | caritrdni trinetrasya sdstradrstdni
gumphaye 'While living in the land of Siva Vijayesvara I shall string together the
deeds of the Three-Eyed [God] as I have seen them in the sacred texts, at the insti-
gation of these two [teachers]'.
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The Saiva Age
alone to the ordinary lay devotee of the Buddha. But the iconographical reper-
toire, the retinue types, the style of worship and Kapalika observance, and the
growing autonomy and diversification of the goddess, are so closely parallel to
what we see among the Sakta Saivas that it is hard to believe that any Indian,
learned or not, could have seen these deities and observed the practices of those
that propitiated them without being aware of this fact.
This must have been especially so in east India. For the Sakta tradition was
particularly strong there, as it still is, and had deep roots in the domain of pop-
ular religion, as is evident from such Puranas of the region as the Devlpurana,
Brhannaradlyapurana, Brhaddharmapurana, and Kalikapurana, 505 from non-
eastern testimony, 506 from the fact that east-Indian locations are conspicuous in
early lists of the Sakta sacred sites, 507 and from the inscriptions and other his-
505 See CHAKRABARTI 2001 passim. The Devlpurana (39.143-145) lists places where
the Mother goddesses are especially present. In this list are Varendra, Radha,
and Kamarupa: vesyasu gopabalasu tudahunakhasesu ca | plthe himavatas *calpa
(?) *jalandhare (corr. : jalandhara Ed.) savaidise || *mahodare (?) varendre ca
radhayam kosale pure | bhottadese sakamakhye *kiskindhe (corr. : kiskindhye) ca
nagottame \\ malaye *kollaname (conj. : koluname Ed.) ca kancyam ca hastinapure
I ujjayinyam ca ta vidya visesena vyavasthitah 'Those Vidyas are especially present
among courtesans, cowherd girls, *Tudas (?), Hunas, and Khasas, in the sacred
site of Himalaya* . . . (?), in Jalandhara, Vidisa, *Mahodara (?), Varendra, Radha,
the capital of Kosala, Tibet, Kamarupa, the great mountain of Kiskindha, Malaya,
*Kolla[giri] (conj.), Kanci, Hastinapura, and Ujjayinf.
506 A verse in a Puranic passage on the calendrical festivals of Kashmir cited
by Laksmidhara early in the twelfth century in the Niyatakalakanda of his
Krtyakalpataru (p. 410, 11. 4-5) associates the sanguinary cult of Durga/Bhadrakali
with the peoples of Bengal and Orissa (Ahga, Vahga, and Kalinga), the Kinnaras,
the Barbaras, and the Sakas: evam nanamlecchaganaih pujyate sarvadasyubhih \
ahgavahgakalihgais ca kimnarair barbaraih sakaih 'She is worshipped in this way
by various foreign communities, by all the Dasyus: the people of Anga, Vanga, and
Kalinga, the Kinnaras, the Barbaras, and the Sakas'. In this list only the people
of Ahga, Vahga, and Kalinga and the Iranian Sakas (if this reading is sound) are
well-known. As for the Kinnaras and Barbaras, Varahamihira locates the former,
under the synonym Asvavadana, in the east (Brhatsamhita 14.6ab: khasamagadha-
sibiragirirnithilasarnatatodrasvavadanadanturakah), and the latter in the south-
west (14.18c).
507 See Sanderson 2001, p. 7, fn. 4. This is particularly clear in the case of the
eight principal sites among the twenty-four: the eight Ksetras, namely Attahasa,
Caritra, Kolagiri, Jayanti, Ujjayim, Prayaga, Varana/Varanasi, and Kotivarsa
(see here p. 195), or, in a variant, Prayaga, Varana/Varanasi, Kollagiri, Attahasa,
Jayanti, Caritra, Ekamra, and Devikota (see, e.g., citation of the Madhavakula
in Tantralokaviveka on 29.67; Kularatnoddyota f. 13r3-4: prayaga varuna holla
attahasa jay antika \ caritraikamrakam caiva *devikottam [corr. : devikostham Cod.]
tathastamam). Attahasa, Kotivarsa/Devikota, Caritra, and Ekamra are all in east-
ern India, the first two in Bengal and the last two in Orissa. The location of
Jayanti is uncertain. It too is east-Indian if it is the Jayantipura in the Ganjam
District of Orissa rather than that in Karnataka (Banavasi). Other east-Indian
sites among the twenty-four are Viraja (Jajpur in Orissa), Nagara (Pataliputra, in
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
torical records of this period. Thus when Devapala is eulogized in an inscription
of his son Mahendrapala it is for two achievements: his martial success and, as
we have seen, his building of two exceptional temples, one of the Buddha and the
other of the Saiva Goddess; Sakta Saiva deities figure strongly, as we have seen,
in the various pious works of Nayapala detailed in the Siyan inscription: several
Vadabhi temples for goddesses, one of them for a hill -top Carcika installed by his
predecessor Mahendrapala, temples for the Nine Durgas, and temples for the
[Bhairava] Hetukesvara and a Bhairava accompanied by a retinue of sixty-four
Mothers; 508 and Madanapala, the patron of Samdhyakaranandin, is described in
that poet's Ramacarita as having attained his success in war through the favour
of Candi. 509 Even the Saiddhantika Prasasti from Bangarh has a Sakta context,
its immediate purpose being to report the building by the Rajaguru Murtisiva of
a Vadabhi temple for Carcika. 510
[Murtisiva], being devoted to pious works, has constructed this Vadabhi temple
which seems to embody his two halves miraculously transformed in a mountain
of snow and a mountain of gold. I fancy that Indra's elephant, now that he can
see the wondrous reflection of the lions [on its roof] in the waters of the heavenly
Ganges, will recoil [in fear] and no longer drink its waters.
That the temple is described as a Vadabhi surmounted by lions establishes that
it is a temple of a goddess. 511 The inscription does not state explicitly that this
goddess is a Carcika: it did not need to do so since the inscription was not doubt
in situ. But we can infer that she was from the fact that the inscription begins
with obeisance to her followed by two benedictory verses in her praise: 512
Bihar), and Pundravardhana (in Bengal) among the eight Samdohas or Upaksetras
(Nisisamcara f. 15vl [3.26]; Kubjikdmata 22.32-38), and Prsthapura (Pistapura in
Kalinga, in the East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh), and Rajagrha (in Bi-
har) among the eight Upaksetras or Samdohas (Nisisamcara f. 15v3-4 [3.29]; Kub-
jikdmata 39-46). We see the same emphasis on the east of India in the scheme of
nine sacred sites (three Pithas, three, Upapithas, and three Samdohas) taught in
the Nisisamcara. In the version of that text known to Abhinavagupta and his com-
mentator Jayaratha the three Pithas are Kamarupa (Assam), Purnagiri (in the Dec-
can), and Uddiyana (Swat). The Upapithas and Samdohas are Pundravardhana,
Varendra, Ekamra, Devikota (all four in eastern India), Ujjayini, and Kollagiri; see
Tantrdloka 15.83c-88.
808 For Nayapala's foundations see here pp. 111-114.
509 Samdhyakaranandin, Ramacarita 4.21: candicaranasarojaprasddasampanna-
vigrahasrikam \ na khalu madanam sdngesam isam agdj jagadvijayasrih 'Did not
the glory of world-conquest come to King Madana when, with the king of Ahga, he
had achieved success in battle by the favour of the lotus-like feet of Candi?'
510 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 25: teneyam himakdncandcalamahdkautuhaldvesitasviydrdhd-
rdhavapusmativa vadabhi punydtmand nirmitd | yatsimhapratibimvam ambara-
dhunltoyesu manye 'dbhutam drstvd samkucadahghrir adya na jaldny airdvatah
*pdsyati (em. : pasyati Ep.).
811 See here p. 112.
512 om namas carcikdyai || surdsurasirahsrenipatavdsasamd jagat \ pdntu visvakrtd-
The Saiva Age
Obeisance to Carcika.
May the world be protected by the dust from the feet of Carcika, worshipped by
the creator of the universe, fragrant powder for the heads of all the gods and
demons.
May Carcika protect the world, who at the aeon's end, garlanded with human
skulls, with her body becoming desiccated out of anxiety at the poverty of her
fare, thinks: "What shall I eat? If I devour this universe in a single bite, it will be
no more than a fragment that will lodge between my teeth. What shall I drink?
The water of [all] the seven oceans is insufficient to be visible in the hollow of my
palm. 513
That a Saiddhantika Guru should have built a temple for a fearsome goddess
of this kind is compelling evidence of the strength of Saktism in the Pala realm.
For there is nothing in the Siddhanta itself to prompt such a construction, that
tradition generally marking itself off from the cults of such deities with their
gruesome iconography and their ecstatic and transgressive rites.
Indeed, as this anomalous foundation suggests, the cult of the emaciated
Carcika seems to have been particularly well-established in the region. There
are numerous surviving images of this goddess at or from sites in Bihar, West
Bengal, Bangladesh, and Orissa, dating from the ninth century to the four-
teenth; 514 she figures prominently in the east-Indian Sakta DevTpurana; 515 and
bhyarcas carcacaranarenavah \\ damstrasamdhinilinam ekakavalam visvam tad
asnami kim saptdmbhodhijaldni hastasusire guptdni kim piyate | ity aharadaridra-
takulataya susyattanum bibhratl kalpdnte nrkapalamandanavidhih pdydj jagac
carcika.
513 With these verses compare those of the east-Indian poets Bhasoka and
Umapatidhara in the anthology Saduktikarnamrta (vv. 126 and 129), compiled
by the east-Indian Sridharadasa in 1205 under Laksmanasena. Bhasoka's being
east-Indian is evident from his name in -oka; see the many names of this kind in
the east-Indian anthologies Subhasitaratnakosa, and Saduktikarnamrta, Amrtoka,
Sarigoka, Ucchoka in the inscriptions of Bengal (N.G. Majumdar 2003, pp. 179,
27, 37, 178), and Dibboka and Rudoka in the commentary on Ramacarita 1.39.
Umapatidhara composed the Deopara inscription of the Sena king Vijayasena (r.
c. 1096-1159) and is reported in Merutunga's Prabandhacintamani to have been a
minister of the Sena Laksmanasena (r. c. 1179-1206); see N.G. Majumdar 2003,
p. 45.
514 See Camunda (Camunda) in the Huntington Archive. For Orissa see also DONALD-
SON 1991.
515 See in particular DevTpurana, Patalas 7 and 9 (> Agnipurdna 135) on Camunda's
Padamalamantra. In that Mantra Camunda is described as having her body clothed
with an elephant hide (gajacarmapravrtasarire). This feature, which was borrowed
from the iconography of Siva not only by Camunda but also, as we have seen, by
Cakrasamvara and Vajravarahl, is found in most of her east-Indian images. See
Huntington Archive, Scans 0058416 (Bangladesh), 0006042 (Itahar, North Dina-
jpur District, West Bengal), 0013693 (findspot not recorded), 0013697 (findspot
not recorded), 0002686 (Harsinghpur, Darbhanga, Bihar), 0000308 (West Bengal),
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
in early canonical treatments of the Sakta Saiva sacred sites this goddess is said
to preside at Devlkota, 516 Pundravardhana, 517 both in Varendri, and Ekamra
(Bhubaneswar) in Orissa. 518 In the first she has the name Karnamoti, 519 accord-
ing to the Nisisamcara, Picumata, and Kubjikamata, and Bahumamsa according
to the Skandapurana-Ambikakanda. 520 In the other two she is called Camunda.
0013061 (Dighapatiya, Natore District, Bangladesh), 0002607 (Munger [Monghyr],
Bihar), 0013063 (Bangladesh), 0013062 (Mahatore, Dinajpur District), and 0013476
(Vikramapura, Dacca District, Bangladesh); also AIISPL Ace. no. 32782 (Advahati,
Burdwan, West Bengal). It is not generally seen in images of Camunda from other
regions. An exception is a fine sculpture at Khajuraho (AIISPL Ace. no. 45199)
from the Chandella period (c. 900-1150). It is perhaps to be introduced by emen-
dation into the description of Camunda's icon in Agnipurdna 50.21c-23b: camunda
kotaraksT sydn nirmamsa tu trilocand || nirmamsa asthisdrd va urdhvakesl krsodarl
| *dvipacarmadhard (dvipa conj. : dvipi Ed.) vdme kapalam pattisam kare || sulam
kartri daksine 'syah savdrudhdsthibhusand.
516 See here p. 112.
517 Nisisamcara f. 18v2-3 (4.35-36): camundeti ca *vikhydtd (em. : vikhyd Cod.) devya
va *pundravardhane (corr. : punda Cod.) | mahdbaldkulotpannd khatvdhga-
karasobhitd || 36 bhuktimuktikard devya samdohaksetrasamsthitd | kumbhdkhyo
ksetrapdlas ca tasmin ksetre vyavasthitah; Kdlikulakramdrcana f. 21vl: HRIM
srIm sri*pundravardhanamahopaksetre camunda-ambapada {pundra corr.
: punda Cod.).
518 Nisisamcara f. 31rl-2: *ekamre (em. : ekatye Cod.) *samsthito (corr. : samsthita
Cod.) devi kirti*vaseti (corr. : taseti Cod.) *kirtitah (corr. : kirtita Cod.) | ca-
mundaya (corr. : camundaya Cod.) samayu*ktah (corr. : ktam Cod.) sthana-
balisamanvi*tam (corr. : tah Cod.); Kubjikamata 15.28—30: vartamdnikakalpe tu
ekamrakavanantagah \ kapalisa*kulesanacarnundacakramadhyagah (kulesana
corr. : kulesanam Ed.) || 29 srikulesvaradevasya hrtpadme 'stadale sthitah |
isanakramayogena srstimdrgavalambikah || 30 karnikayam sthito devas catuska-
parivaritah | raktdkardldcandaksimahocchusmasamanvitah; Kularatnoddyota f.
16r2 (3.140c— 142b): ekamrakavandntasthd utpannd<h> paramesvari || 141
kapdlisasamopetds camunda*cakramadhyagdh (corr. : scakra Cod.) | pithasthdnd-
srayodbhutds catasro 'nyd<h> pardmbike | 142 raktd kardld canddksi ucchusmeti
praklrtitdh.
519 Karnamoti is listed as a synonym of Camunda in Amarakosa 1.1.92 (see here
p. 231). The name appears for Camunda in the series of eight Mother goddesses
when these are given as the deities of the seven sets of sounds of the Sanskrit syl-
labary plus KSA in Siddhayogesvarimata 16.41c— 43c: kavarge samsthita brdhmi
cavarge caiva vaisnavT || mdhesvari tavargasthd ydmyd pujyd ta-m-ddind | kaumdri
sarpavalayd pddyenaitdm prapujayet || yavarge vdsavT tatra karnamoti sa-m-ddind
| krodhe *jheyd (conj. : seyd Ed.) para saktir aghoresT 'Brahml is in the gutturals,
Vaisnavi in the palatals, Mahesvari in the retroflexes, and Yamya in the dentals.
He should worship snake-bangled Kaumari with the labials. Aindri is in the semi-
vowels and Karnamoti (= Camunda) in the sibilants. Know that the goddess in ksa
is the supreme Power Aghoresvarf. The origin of the name is unknown, the common
interpretation 'Ear-pearl' being implausible since it fails to account for the retroflex
t-
520 Skandapurdna-Ambikdkhanda 171.109, 112, 124 This name is probably an epithet
that served as this Karnamotl's personal name and so does not indicate a different
goddess. The epithet, meaning 'having much meat', no doubt refers to her insa-
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The Saiva Age
Of these sites Devlkota appears to have been of special importance from
early times. The Mddhavakula refers to it simply as Sripitha, that is to say, as
the Seat [of the Goddess]; 521 and the Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda describes
it 522 as a city originally fashioned by Brahma where this goddess and the other
Mothers who accompany her were created by Siva and the other gods from
their own bodies in order to destroy the demons who had seized it. After the
city has been freed Siva declares that henceforth it will be the Mothers' sacred
abode, 523 that he will reside here with them as Hetukesvara, 524 and that they
will be worshipped following ritual procedures taught in Tantras that will be
composed for this purpose by the grateful gods. The titles of these Tantras of
the Mothers {mdtrtantrani), which are listed in the narrative, reveal them to be
Yamalatantras, headed by the Brahmayamala. 525
tiable appetite for animal sacrifices. The alternative, that it means 'fleshy', that
is to say, full-bodied, is highly implausible, since she is described here as the de-
stroyer of the universe and as having a hideous form (171.108c-109: tato devo 'srjad
devim rudranlm mataram subham | vikrtam rupam asthaya dvitlyam api mataram
| namna tu bahumdmsdm tarn jagatsamhararupinim 'Then the deity [Siva] em-
anated the fine Mother goddess Rudram, and, taking on a hideous form, a second
Mother, the [well-known goddess] called Bahumamsa, who embodies the destruc-
tion of the universe'.
621 See here p. 192 and Tantraloka 29.60cd.
522 Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda 171.78-137, referring to Devlkota under its name
Kotivarsa. See here p. 113.
523 Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda 171.120c-121b [Siva addresses the Mothers]: bha-
vatlnam idam sthanam kotlvarsam iti srutam | bhavisyati jagatkhyatam sar-
vapdpapramocanam 'This place known as Kotivarsa will be yours, famed through-
out the world, with the power to free from any sin'; 171.133cd: kotlvarsam idam
sthanam mdtrnam priyam uttamam.
524 SkandapuranaAmbikakhanda 171.121c-122b [Siva addresses the Mothers]: aham
hetur hi yusmakam yasmdt srsta mayaiva ca || herukesvaranamnaham sthasydmy
atra varapradah \ yusmabhih saha vatsyami nayakatve vyavasthitah \\ yas tu
yusman maya sardham vidhivat pujayisyati | sarvapapavimuktatma sa param
gatim dpsyati 'Because I am your cause (hetuh) and it was I that created [you], I
shall be present here to bestow boons with the name Hetukesvara. I shall dwell
here with you as your leader. Whoever correctly worships you with me will be freed
from all sins and attain the highest goal'.
525 Skandapurana-Ambikakhanda 171.127-132b [Siva addresses the Mothers]: aham
brahma ca visnus ca rsayas ca tapodhanah | mdtrtantrani divyani matryajnavidhim
*prati (conj. .param Cod.) || 128 punyani prakarisyamo yajanam yair avapsyatha \
brahmam svayambhuvam caiva kaumaram yamalam tatha || 129 sarasvatam ca
gandharam aisanam nandiyamalam \ tantrany etani yusmakam tathanyany sa-
hasrasah || 130 bhavisyanti nara yais tu yusman yaksyanti bhaktitah \ naranam
yajamdnanam varan yuyam pradasyatha || 131 divyasiddhiprada devyo di-
vyayoga bhavisyatha \ yds ca naryah sada yusman yaksyante sarahasyatah || 132
yogesvaryo bhavisyanti rama divyaparakramah 'I, Brahma, Visnu, and the as-
cetic sages will compose excellent and holy Matrtantras for the rites of the wor-
ship of the Mothers, by means of which you shall receive offerings. The Brah-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Moreover, it is probable that some at least of the surviving east-Indian im-
ages of the emaciated goddess reproduce the iconography of this important local
form. An image of Carcika from the Dinajpur District of Bangladesh, in which
Devikota was located, shows the goddess seated beneath a banyan tree; 526 and
we see the same in an image from an unrecorded site in West Bengal. 527 In both
images severed human heads are attached by their hair to the tree's branches, in-
dicating that the site of this tree is a cremation ground, since cremation grounds
were also places of execution. 528 Now, in the tradition of the Picumata and
the Nisisamcara each of the major Sakta sites is a cremation ground with its
own distinctive sacred tree; and in the case of Kotivarsa/Devikota this is in-
maydmala, the Svayambhuydmala, the Skandaydmala, the Sdrasvataydmala, the
Gdndhdraydmala, the Isdnaydmala, and the Nandiydmala: you shall have these
Tantras and others in thousands, and with them men will sacrifice to you in devo-
tion. You will grant boons to men who sacrifice to you. Being goddesses of celestial
power you will bestow celestial Siddhis. And women who sacrifice to you regularly
with the secret [ritesl will become Yogesvaris, women of celestial might'. On the
list of Yamalatantras in this passage and its relation to lists of such texts in the
Vidyapitha see SANDERSON 2001, pp. 6-7, fn. 4. The Brahmaydmala, also called
Picumata, teaches the worship of Bhairava as Hetuka surrounded with the God-
dess by eight Viras and twenty-four Yoginis in its eightieth chapter (f. 306r2-3;
80.32-33): hetukam devadevesam kapdlakrtabhusanam | vlrdstakayutam madhye
devadevam parodayam || kdldgnivdyusamyuktam adhordhvakrtasamgatim | nyaset
svarupabhdsvantam tato yogiganam nyaset. It is striking that this reference to
Hetuka, presumably the Bhairava of Devikota, is found in a chapter which is dis-
tinguished by being one of the very few passages in the Vidyapitha that departs
from the Tantric norm by containing material of the Puranic type, the subject
which gives it its title being a myth of the origin of the skull-bowl and skull-staff
(kapdlakhatvdhgotpattih).
526 Pala period; black stone; 9 inches in height; now in the Varendra Museum in Ra-
jshahi: Huntington Archive , Scan 0013117.
527 Sena period; black stone; 25.75 inches in height; now in the National Museum, New
Delhi: Huntington Archive Scan 0000308.
528 See, e.g., Kumdrasambhava 5.73cd; Kathdsaritsdgara 18.130d; Rdjatarahginl
2.79-84; Picumata 3.32d-93, describing the depiction of the cremation ground
at Prabhasa: tato nimbam samdlikhet | saptaddlam mahdbhimam citibhih
prajvalantibhih \ ekaikasmim likhet dale nagnam udbaddhakam naram 'Then he
should depict a Nimba tree with seven branches, most frightening with the burning
pyres [around it]. On each branch he should draw a naked hanged man'; 15.16:
krsndstamydm caturdasydm savam grhya tha sddhakah | udbaddham siilaprotam
vd aksatdhgam tu ddrakam; Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 3, Yoginisamcdraprakarana
8.71c-72b, describing the depiction of cremation grounds: ydmyddyair nairrtdntais
tu disair vrksdn samdlikhet || udbaddhanarapracchanndn; Vajragarbha on Hevajra
1.7.21 (dhvajam sastrahatam caiva) quoted in SNELLGROVE 1959, Pt. 1, p. 71, n.:
rgyal mtshan ni rgyal pos rkun po la sogs pa skyes pa 'am bud med ga' zhig chad
pas bead de lus mtshon gyis dral nas ro shing la dpyangs pa'o 'a dhvajah is a corpse
of some man or woman guilty of theft or some other crime whom the king has had
executed with the sword, which has then been hung up on a tree [in the cremation
ground]'.
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The Saiva Age
deed the banyan (vatavrksah). 529 This strongly suggests that the local Carcika
of Devikota may have been multiplied in the manner of the Nataraja of the Tamil
country, which though originally the deity of Cidambaram was established in sec-
ondary forms in temples throughout the region. We may note also that most of
the surviving east-Indian Carcikas hold the trident, often as the most conspic-
uous of their held attributes. Both the Picumata and the Nisisamcara specify
this as the weapon distinctive of the Karnamoti of Devikota, and the Skanda-
purana-Ambikakhanda says that it is because the goddess of this place slew
the demons with her trident here that the site contains a sacred bathing-place
called Sulakunda 'the pond of the trident' and that anyone who drinks its water
{sulodakam) after doing obeisance to her will be safe from all harmful beings
(171.124-125). The Picumata too refers to this Kunda. 530
Finally, the pre-eminence of the emaciated goddess in the Saktism of eastern
India during this period is strongly underlined by the fact it is she that the Bud-
dhists of the cult of Cakrasamvara chose to represent supine beneath the right
foot of Samvara and Vajravarahi as the female representative of the Sakta Saiva
tradition.
In textual references to that Buddhist icon she is generally called Kalaratri.
But there can be no doubt about her identity. For (1) she is called Carcika
in the Vajravarahisadhana of the Siddha Luyi, 531 and Camunda in a Kalpa of
the Abhidhanottara and in the anonymous Trayodasatmakavajradakinivajra-
varahisadhana, which is based upon it; 532 (2) Carcika is called Kalaratri in a
529 See here p. 112. That the sacred sites are the cremation grounds {smasanam)
of the places listed is clear from the context in the Picumata, that (3.8-127)
being a description of the nine cremation grounds that must be installed in
the initiation Mandala (mahamandalam), one at the centre (Prayaga) and eight
around the periphery (Varanasi, Viraja [Jajpur in Orissa], Kollagiri [Kolhapur
in Karnataka], Prabhasa [in Kathiawar], Ujjayim [in Malwa], Bhutesvara [in
Mathura?], Ekamraka [Bhubaneswar in Orissa], and Kotivarsa). It is also clear
from the account of Kotivarsa given in the SkandapuranaAmbikakhanda, since
that prophesies that the site will become a great cremation ground (171.133c-134b):
kotivarsam idam sthanam matrnam priyam uttamam || smasanam pravaram
divyam bhavisyati sukhapradam.
530 Picumata f. 8r3 (3.119c-121b): isane tu disdbhdge kotivarsam. prakalpayet \\ 120
vatam tatra samalikhya tatra sulodakam likhet | diksu caiva vidiksu ca sulaprota
likhet tatha || 121 sula tasydgrato likhya kundasyaiva mahatape. It appears from
this that the pond (kundam) was also known as the Sulodaka.
531 Guhyasamayasadhanamala f. llrl-2: vamabahustanamandalahrdayasambhava-
*militadaksinahghrim (em. : milita \ daksindmghri Cod.) carcika<m> rakta<m>
daksinasirahpatita<m>.
532 Abhidhanottara, Patala 56, A f. 173v2: padatalakrantabhairavacamunda 'treading
on Bhairava and Camunda with the soles of her feet'; Trayodasatmakavajradakinl-
vajravarahisadhana in Guhyasamayasadhanamala, f. 78r4-5: padakranta*krta-
sambhucamundam (em. : krtam | sambhuscamundam Cod.). For the full visualiza-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
verse by the east-Indian poet Bhasoka; 533 and (3) the goddess beneath the foot of
Samvara/Vajravarahi is depicted as emaciated, with sunken eyes and withered
breasts, holding a skull-bowl and chopping knife in her two hands. 534 The ema-
ciated Carcikas of our surviving images have four, six, eight, or ten arms, but the
skull-bowl (kapdlam) and chopping knife (kartrikd) are indeed among their four
primary attributes, the other two being the trident and a severed head. 535 The
goddess beneath the right foot is, as it were, the east-Indian Carcika reduced to
essentials: the emaciated body, the red colour, and only two arms, brandishing
what were felt to be her two most basic attributes.
It is inconceivable, therefore, that east-Indians, for whom Sakta Saivism was
so central, then as now, would not have been conscious of the Sakta Saiva guise
of this new Buddhism; and it is equally inconceivable that they would have been
blind to the fact that the humilated goddess supine beneath Samvara's and Va-
jravarahi's feet was the pre-eminent goddess of the east-Indian Sakta tradition.
Clearly the east-Indian Buddhists who developed this iconography chose this
goddess precisely because she occupied so prominent a position in that tradition
and therefore would be instantly recognized.
In explanation of why this profound transformation of Buddhism occurred,
we might be tempted to say that Buddhism was simply yielding ever more com-
pletely to the Sakta Saiva religious tradition then dominant in the region, failing,
as it were, to maintain its original purity in the face of this external pressure and
the concomitant expectations of its patrons. This was perhaps how the matter
would have been represented by the Sravakayanists; and no doubt there is some
truth in this assessment, since it is extremely unlikely that east-Indian Bud-
dhists would have chosen to develop this new manifestation of their religion if
Sakta Saivism had not become the pre-eminent religious idiom of the region. But
tion text of which this is part see ENGLISH 2002, p. 407, n. 207.
533 Saduktikarnamrta 126. For the east-Indian character of names in -oka see here
p. 227.
534 For this depiction see two stone sculptures from Ratnagiri in Orissa (LlNROTHE
1999, figs. 198-202), two bronzes, one from Vikramasila and the other from an
unrecorded site in eastern India (Linrothe 1999, figs. 206-208), a Kashmirian
bronze (Pal 1975, Plate 64a,b; Linrothe 1999, fig. 211; Huntington Archive Scan
0059531), some early Tibetan bronzes (Linrothe 1999, figs. 213-214), a Nepalese
bronze of the fourteenth century (Pal 2003, fig. 31), a Nepalese bronze dated 1772
(Reedy 1997, fig. N299), a painting from Khara-khoto, before 1227 (Rhie and
Thurman 1991, fig. 92), and a Nepalese painting of the early seventeenth century
(Kreijger 1999, p. 53). In some Tibetan paintings Kalaratri's emaciation is absent
(e.g., Pal 2003, fig. 117; Kossak and Singer 1998, fig. 43; Rhie and Thurman
1991, fig. 69.2); but that this is a secondary development can be inferred from its
much more restricted occurrence.
535 See Camunda (Camunda) in Huntington Archive.
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The Saiva Age
the iconography of the humiliation of Carcika and Bhairava and the extensive
learned literature that developed around the kernel of the Yoginitantras alert us
to the fact that those who created and refined this tradition saw the matter in an
entirely different light. In their view they were not succumbing passively to an
alien influence. Fully conscious that they were assimilating the dominant Sakta
Saiva idiom of the region, they justified their doing so as a means of converting
non-Buddhists, taking their practices and encoding them with Buddhist mean-
ing so that outsiders could rise effortlessly through what was familiar to them to
what would save them, a view exactly reflected in Jayadratha's myth of the com-
pilation of anti-Saiva iconography, Sakta Saiva liturgy, Mantras, and Buddhist
doctrine as a means of luring devout Saivas away from their faith.
For while the learned literature of Tantric Buddhism claims with sincere
conviction that its special methods are designed for exceptionally able aspirants
within the Buddhist fold, 536 its point of entry, namely initiatory introduction be-
fore the Mandala, was designed to facilitate the recruitment of those outside it
and to this end access was rendered as easy as possible. Thus in the seventh
century the Mahavairocandbhisambodhi sets out a number of qualities to be
sought in candidates but states that if even only one of these is present there is
no need to investigate further; 537 and in the eight century the Sarvatathagata-
536 See, for example, the doctrine of the four points of superiority of the Tantric form
of the Mahayana, the Mantranaya, over the non-Tantric Way of the Perfections
(paramitanayah) asserted in the *Nayatrayapradipa by an author whose name ap-
pears in the Tenjur as Tripitakamala, an implausible name, perhaps an error for
Tripitakamalla (Tshul gsum gyi sgron ma, f. 16v3: de yang pha rol tu phyin pa'i
theg pa chen po dang don gcig pa las de'i khyad par gang dag yod pa de brjod par
bya'o | don gcig nyid 'ang ma rmongs dang | thabs mang dka' ba med phyir dang |
dbang po rnon po'i dbang byas pas | sngags kyi bstan bcos khyad par phags 'More-
over, although there may be no difference in the goal [of the Mantramahayana]
from that of the Paramitamahayana the points that distinguish [the former] should
be statedf. This has been done done in the following verse]: "Though the goal is
one and the same the Mantrasastra is superior (1) because it is free of delusion
[on the path], (2) because it offers many methods [for reaching the goal], (3) be-
cause it is free of difficulties, and (4) because only those with the highest capacity
are qualified [to undertake it]'". The Sanskrit of the verse is preserved through
citation (without attribution) in the Tattvaratnavali of Advayavajra (p. 8) (A), the
Sthitisamasa of his disciple Sahajavajra (f. Ilv2 [6.5]) (B), and the anonymous
Subhasitasamgraha (part 2, p. 31) (C): ekarthatve 'py asammohad *bahupayad
(AB Tib. [thabs mang] : vajropayad C) aduskarat | tiksnendriyadhikarac ca
mantrasastram visisyate. It has also been cited by Ka ro pa (Karopa?), wrongly
attributing it to a *Pradlpoddyotanatantra (sgron ma gsal ba'i rgyud), in his com-
mentary on the Caturmudranvaya (Mathes 2008, p. 96). According to the view of
some, as reported by Gzhon nu dpal, Ka ro pa was another disciple of Advayavajra
(Blue Annals, pp. 842-843, 847-849, reported by Mathes [2008, p. 89] as saying
that he was a disciple of Advayavajra's disciple Vajrapani).
537 rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud (Mahavairocana-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tattvasamgraha goes so far as to prohibit the application of any criteria for dis-
tinguishing between those who are and are not worthy. Furthermore, it makes
this open-door policy absolutely clear by specifying those to whom introduction
before its Mandala is intended to appeal: 538
Next is [the topic of] the detailed procedure that begins with the entry of Va-
jra disciples into this Great Mandala of the Vajradhatu. In this the first step is
entry in as much it is the means of rescuing all persons without exception and
of bringing about the accomplishment of the highest joy for the benefit of all.
With regard to this entry before the Great Mandala [the officiant] need not ex-
amine candidates to determine who is and is not worthy. Why is that? Venerable
Tathagatas, there are (1) people who have commited great sins. By seeing and
entering this Great Mandala of the Vajradhatu they will be freed of all the bad re-
births [that would be the consequences of those sins]. 539 Venerable [Tathagatas],
bhisambodhitantra), f. 162v4-6: de nas de yi phyi de nyin | slob ma dad cing rigs
btsun pa | de bzhin dkon mchog gsum la dad | zab mo yi ni bio dang Idan | spro ba
che zhing tshul khrims Idan | bzod dang Idan zhing ser sna med | dpa' la yi dam
brtan pa ni \ bcu 'am brgyad dam bdun nam Inga \ gcig gnyis bzhi las lhag kyang
rung | dpyad mi dgos par gzung bar bya 'Then, the next day, he should assemble
candidates (1) with faith, (2) of good family, (3) with belief in the Three Jewels, (4)
with deep understanding, (5) with great energy, (6) adhering to moral conduct, (7)
patient, (8) free of envy, (9) intrepid, and (10) steadfast in their observances. They
are acceptable without need for [further] examination if they have [all] ten, or eight,
seven, five, one, two, four, or more [of these qualities].'
538 Sarvatathdgatasamgraha, sections 210-213: athatra vajradhdtumahdmandale
vajrasisyapravesddividhivistaro bhavati | tatra prathamam tdvat praveso bhavaty
asesdnavasesasattvadhdtuparitrdnasarvahitasukhottamasiddhikdryakaranatayd-
tra mahdmandalapravese pdtrdpdtrapariksd na kdryd | tat kasmdd dhetoh |
santi bhagavantas tathdgatdh kecit sattvd mahdpdpakdrinah | ta idam vajra-
dhdtumahdmandalam drstvd pravistvd ca sarvdpdyavigatd bhavisyanti | santi ca
bhagavantah sattvah sarvdrthabhojanapdnakdmagunagrddhdh samayadvistdh
purascaranddisv asaktdh | tesdm apy atra yathdkdmakaraniyatayd pravistdndm sa-
rvdsdparipurir bhavisyati \ santi ca bhagavantah sattvah nrttagdyahdsyaldsydhd-
ravihdrapriyatayd sarvatathdgatamahdydndbhisamayadharmatdnavabodhatvdd
anyadevakulamandaldni pravisanti | sarvdsdparipurisamgrahabhutesu niruttara-
ratipritiharsasambhavakaresu sarvatathdgatakulamandalesu siksdpadabhayabhi-
td na pravisanti | tesdm apdyamandalapravesapathdvasthitamukhdndm ayam eva
vajradhdtumahdmandalapraveso yujyate sarvaratiprityuttamasiddhisukhasau-
manasydnubhavandrtham sarvdpdyapratipravesdbhimukhapathavinivartandya
ca | santi ca punar bhagavanto dhdrmikdh sattvah sarvatathdgatasilasamddhi-
prajhottamasiddhyupdyair buddhabodhim prdrthayanto dhydnavimoksddibhir
bhumibhir yatantah klisyante | tesdm atraiva vajradhdtumahdmandalapravesa-
mdtrenaiva sarvatathdgatatvam api na durlabham kim ahga punar anyd siddhir
iti.
539 rp^g d oc t rme that the mere sight of the Mandala destroys all one's sins is seen here
in section 900: tato yathdvan mukhabandham muktvd mahdmandalam darsayet
| mandale drstamdtre tu sarvapdpair vimucyate 'Then after duly removing the
blindfold he should show him the Great Mandala. As soon as he has seen it he
is freed of all his sins'. But it is much older. It is already found in the Mahd-
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The Saiva Age
there are (2) people who are attached to every [kind of] wealth, food, drink, and
other sense objects, who are [therefore] averse to [submitting to] the rules [of the
initiated] (samaydh) and incapable of such disciplines as the Preliminary Obser-
vance (purascaranam). 540 If they enter this [Mandala] they too will have all their
manivipulavimdnasupratisthitaguhyaparamarahasyakalpadhdranl, which may be
the earliest Buddhist text teaching consecration in the context of introduction to
a Mandala, here with the peculiarity that consecration precedes entry, while in
the later tradition entry precedes consecration: f. 53vl-5 (Tib. f 384v7): tatah
anena mantrendbhisincya pravesayet: OH MANIVIPULASUPRATISTHITA*SIDDHE
(Tib. : siddha Cod.) ABHISINCA MAM *SARVATATHAGATABHISEKAIR (Tib. :
SARVATATHAGATABHISEKAI Cod.) BHARA BHARA *SAMBHARA SAMBHARA (Tib.
: SAMBHARA Cod.) *HUM HUM (Cod. : HUM Tib.) | yathdbhisiktamdtras
ca sarvapdpdvarandni purvajanmasamjdtdni karmdvarandni visuddhdni bha-
vanti sarva*suddhiparigrhito (suddhi em. : suddha Cod.) bhavati sarvatathd-
gatddhisthitah sarvatathdgatdbhisiktah 'Then he should introduce him into the
Mandala after consecrating him with the Mantra om manivipulasupratisthita-
SIDDHE ABHISINCA MAM SARVATATHAGATABHISEKAIR BHARA BHARA SAMBHARA
SAMBHARA HUM HUM. Merely through this consecration the obscurations of all his
sins, the obscurations of his actions committed in previous lives, are eliminated. He
possesses all purity. He has been entered-and-empowered by all the Tathagatas.
All the Tathagatas have consecrated him'. According to the Zhen Yuan Catalogue
of a.d. 800 (T 2157-935a:26) the Chinese translation of this text (T 1007) was pre-
pared by an unknown translator of the Liang dynasty (503-557). However, I do not
yet know if this passage is found in that translation.
540 This ig the practice otherwise known as purvasevd. It consists of a high number
of repetitions of a Mantra along with ascetic restraints by means of which the
practitioner qualifies himself to undertake procedures that require its use. See,
e.g., Mahjusriyamulakalpa, p. 236: ddau tdvat parvatdgram druhya vimsallaksd-
ni japet | purvasevd krtd bhavati | kslrdhdrena maunind ndnyatra mantragata-
cittena trisaranaparigrhltena utpdditabodhicittena ca posadhasilasamvarasamd-
ddpandbodhisattvasamvaraparigrhitena japtavyam \ tatah karmdni bhavanti 'Be-
fore [beginning the Kalpa] he must first climb to a mountain top and [there] re-
peat the Mantra two million times. [Thus] the Preliminary Service [of the Mantra]
will have been accomplished. He must repeat the Mantra while sustaining himself
with [nothing but] milk, maintaining silence, with his mind fixed on the Mantra
and nothing else, after taking the three Refuges, having formally resolved to attain
the Awakening, and having taken up the Posadha fast, the restraint of morality,
and the restraint of a Bodhisattva. [Only] then can the rituals be undertaken.'
This, barring the specifically Buddhist vows, is exactly as prescribed in the Saiva
Mantramarga, where, as here, the terms purvasevd and purascaranam / 'pur ascary a
are standard and synonymous. See, e.g., Nisvdsaguhya, f. 80v3: japamdna-m eva
mdsena purvasevd krtd bhavati 'By repeating the Mantra for a month the Pre-
liminary Service will have been accomplished'; and Ksemaraja Svacchandoddy-
ota ad 7.104cd: purascaryd prathamam eva mantragrahapurvam vratam niyata-
japddikaranam 'The purascaryd is the observance that follows immediately after
receiving the Mantra. It is to do a fixed number of repetitions [of that Mantra] with
certain other [requirements].' Living on a diet of milk and maintaining silence is
also a standard feature of Saiva Mantra observances; see, e.g., Nisvdsaguhya f. 81r4:
dasdham kslrdhdrena japtavyah kdlamrtyum jayati; f. 82vr4: naktdsi ksirdhdro
vd maunena tu japed yas tu | sa sivo 'bdena mdnavah; f. 84v6: anena mantrena
ksirdhdro samvatsaram japet.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
hopes fulfilled in accordance with their desires. Venerable [Tathagatas], there are
(3) people who cannot grasp the nature of the understanding of the Mahayana of
all the Tathagatas because they are attached to dancing, singing, joking, amuse-
ments, and the pleasures of eating, and [so] take initiation before the Mandalas of
otherf, non-Buddhist] families of deities. Being afraid of the moral regulations [of
Buddhism] they do not enter the Mandalas of the family of all the Buddhas, which
comprise the fulfilment of all aspirations, which bestow the highest happiness, de-
light, and joy. It is for these too, who are inclined to enter the way of Mandalas
that lead to bad rebirths, that this entry into the Mandala of Vajradhatu is ap-
propriate, so that they may experience every happiness and delight, the highest
Siddhi, joy, and contentment and be turned aside from the path that leads them
to enter all [Mandalas that result in] bad rebirths. Venerable [Tathagatas], there
are also (4) pious persons, who seek the Buddhas' enlightenment by means of
the morality (silam), concentrations (samadhih), and wisdom (prajna) of all the
Tathagatas but who experience hardship as they strive to attain the levels of the
meditations (dhyanam), liberations (vimoksah), and the other [states on the path
taught in the Paramitanaya]. They will easily attain All-Buddha-hood without
difficulty in this very life (atraiva), all the more so other Siddhis, simply by enter-
ing this Mandala of Vajradhatu.
Thus the text offered Mandala initiation not only to Buddhists, and in par-
ticular to those who had found themselves unable to progress on the exacting
path of the Paramitanaya, but also to sinners and sensualists regardless of their
religion, and, most important in the present context, to outsiders who had al-
ready taken a non-Buddhist Tantric initiation or might otherwise be expected do
so.
The Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha does not tell us whether it has particu-
lar kinds of non-Buddhist Tantrics in mind. We can only guess from the character
of the initiation ceremony, with its emphasis on possession, and the cult to which
initiation leads, with its erotic and sensual elements, that Sakta Saivas must
have been intended. Later sources, however, do make clear that it is indeed the
non-Buddhist followers of the kinds of practice being adapted by the Buddhists
that are in mind. Thus Anandagarbha, the period of whose activity, though not
yet narrowly determined, may be assigned to the ninth century, 541 attempting
541 The dating of Anandagarbha in the ninth century seems probable solely on the
grounds of the range of his exegesis, which covers the Yogatantra systems of
the Sarvatathagataattvasamgraha (his Sarvavajrodaya, his commentaries on the
Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha [Toh. 2511]), the Paramadya (his commentary
[Toh. 2512]), the Mayajala (his commentary [Toh. 2513]), Guhyasamaja (his com-
mentary [Toh. 1917]), and the Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara (his com-
mentary on the Sarvakalpasamuccaya [Toh. 1662]). In the last of these Tantric
systems we also have in Sanskrit but not in Tibetan translation his Vajrajvalodaya
nama sriherukasadhanopayika in a codex photographed by Rahula Sarikrtyayana
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The Saiva Age
in his commentary on the Guhyasamdjatantra to explain the extraordinary fact
that the place where the Buddha is said to have been residing at the time that
he revealed this Tantra is the vaginas of the goddesses, declares: 542
If it is asked why he was residing in their private parts, the answer is [that this
is] in order to bring it about that those devoted to the Tantras of Visnu and the
other [gods], who have not yet abandoned [their attachment to] the objects of the
senses, may come through desire itself to delight in the abandoning of desire. For
they seek to attain the Siddhis of such [gods] as Visnu by resorting to women,
and using such [offerings] as beef and urine. Those engaged in the quest for the
Siddhis taught by these [gods do indeed] copulate with women [for this purpose].
For [it is said in their texts]: "Visnu is Bhagavan ['the possessor oibhaga-'] in that
he resides in the genitals (bhaga-) of women. He is called Narayana [for the same
reason,] because [by residing there] he gives pleasure to men". 543
in the Ngor monastery in Tibet which comprises apart from this work forty-one
items pertaining to the cult of Hevajra (Isaacson 1999). The dating is supported
by the tradition (Blue Annals, p. 373) that he was a pupil of Dipankarabhadra, who
was a pupil of Buddhajnana, a contemporary of king Dharmapala (r. c. 775-812) (see
here p. 93).
542 gSang ba 'dus pa'i dka' grel, f. 4r3-5: ci'i phyir de dag gis gsang ba la bzhugs she
na | smras pa khyab 'jug la sogs pa'i rgyud la mngon par dga' zhing yul yongs su mi
spong ba mams ni 'dod chags kyis 'dod chags spong ba 'di la dga' ba bskyed par bya'i
phyir te \ 'di Itar bud med bsten pa dang *ba sha dang (conj. :bshad Derge, Cone,
Ganden) gci la sogs pa bsten pas khyad jug la sogs pa bsgrub par 'dod cing | des
bstanpa'i dngos grub tshol pa la zhugspa de dag btsun mo'i gsangpa la mngon par
jug par 'gyur te \ de yang \ bha ga legs Idan khyab jug ste \ bud med kyi ni mdoms
na gnas | mi mams dga' bar byed pas na | des na sred med bu zhes bya zhes bshad
do.
543 The unknown author of this verse intends a nirvacanam of narayanah. A nirva-
canam is a kind of semantic analysis that explains why a word is appropriate to
that to which it is applied (anvartha-). When this is not thought to be adequately
revealed through ordinary grammatical analysis one may resort to an analysis in
which the meaning sought is discovered by deriving one or more of a word's syl-
lables from a verbal root that resembles it in sound. See the analysis of Yaska's
statement of this principle in Kahrs 1998, pp. 35-39. In this case the name is
made to mean 'he who gives pleasure to men'. The first component in this analy-
sis of narayanah was evidently nara-, understood as either as 'sons of man' (nara-)
by Astadhyayl 4.3.120 (tasyedam; cf Manusmrti l.lOab in another nirvacanam of
narayanah: apo nara iti prokta apo vai narasunavah), or as 'men' {nara-) by ap-
plication of Astadhyayl 6.3.136 (anyesam api drsyate) to account for non-standard
lengthening of the first vowel. For these two alternatives see Kulluka on Manusmrti
l.lOab and Medhatithi on the same for the second. Since ay a- can mean 'good for-
tune', I speculate that the author found his meaning by deriving the last syllable,
-na, from y>if- 'to lead [to]', arriving by this artifice at 'he who leads men to good
fortune, i.e. happiness' (naran ayam sukham nayatlti narayanah), the substitu-
tion of n for n being caused by the preceding r. The artificial derivation of -na
from yjnl- is seen in the semantic analysis of samanah for the fourth of the five vi-
tal energies implicit in, e.g., Nisvasanaya 4.124ab (Nisvasatattvasamhita f 40r3) (>
Svacchandatantra 7.308d): samanah samatam nayet, and Sardhatrisatikalottara
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
It comes as a surprise that Anandagarbha attributes the extreme Tantric
practices that he details here to Vaisnavas, since nothing of this kind has been
noted in their known literature. Because of this and because the use of female
consorts, cow-flesh, urine and other products of the male and female body in the
propitiation of deities for the attaining of supernatural powers or effects appears
in our sources to be the hallmark of the Saiva Vidyapitha, and of the Picumata in
particular, 544 it is tempting to propose that Anandagarbha has made a mistake
and that had he been better informed or less careless he would have attributed
these practices to those whom we know to have adopted them. But this cannot
easily be accepted in the light of the fact that he backs up his attribution by
citing a verse that supports it. I conclude, therefore, that his claim is rather evi-
dence that some Vaisnavas had assimilated the transgressive, Sakta Saiva style
of observance, just as the Buddhists had. In any case, whatever the accuracy of
this attribution, it is extremely unlikely that Anandagarbha did not also have
the Sakta Saivas in mind when he referred to "those devoted to the Tantras of
Visnu and other [gods]".
Similarly Sraddhakaravarman, one of the Indian teachers of the Ti-
betan translator Rin chen bzang po (958-1055), says in his *Yoganiruttara-
lO.lOcd: samam nayati gdtresu samano ndma mdrutah.
544 See, e.g., Picumata f. 280v4: 67.71 saktigarte ksipel lingam tatah pujd<m>
samdrabhet | gati-r-dgatiyogena saktiviksobhatatparah 'He should insert his pe-
nis into the vagina of his consort and then begin the worship, intent on
bringing his consort to orgasm through to-and-fro motion'; f. 106v3-4: 22.152
saktim tu ksobhayen mantri vidydydstasatam japet | mantrasya vd japec caiva
svaydgavidhicoditam || 153 dravyaprdsya purd krtva gomamsam kincisamyutam
| surasthina samdyuktam pistam pindikrtan tatha || 154 ksobhadravyena
sammardya lihgdkdram tu karayet | praksiped yonimadhye tu nimisam cdlya
pidayet || 155 mantram uccdrayen mantri samkhydydstasatam tatha | karsayitvd
tu tarn lingam gudikam karayet tatah || 156 japarcanavidhau nityam pujayet
sddhakottamah 'The Mantra-adept should arouse his consort and [as he does so]
repeat the Vidya 108 times. He should do the repetition of his Mantra as pre-
scribed in the procedure for his set of deities. First he should swallow the sub-
stances. Then he should grind cow-flesh mixed with faeces and surdsthi (urine?)
into a ball, kneed it with the ejaculates, make it into the shape of a Liftga, insert
it into [his consort's] vagina, move it about for a short while and then compress it.
The Mantra-adept should utter the Mantra 108 times, then withdraw the Linga,
and make it into a pellet. The best of Sadhakas should always offer [this] when he
performs the repetition of the Mantras and the act of worship'; f. 10v5: gomamsam
guggulam caiva pinyakam lasunam tatha || 3.210 siddhyartham gudika hy eta
homayen nityakarmani | mandate tarpanam krtva gomamsasuraydnvitam 'Cow-
flesh, bdellium, oil-cake, and garlic: he should offer this [mixture as a] pellet into
the consecrated fire in his daily ritual'; f. 141v2 (28.38cd): gomamsam surayd
misram homayita vicaksanah 'The adept should offer into the fire cow-flesh mixed
with wine'; f. 39v3 (5.40ab): sampute sthdpayitvd tu mutrahomam tu karayet 'He
should place urine in a bowl and offer it into the fire'.
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The Saiva Age
tantrarthavatarasamgraha, referring to the Yogatantras as the Tantras of
Method (Upayatantras) and to the Yoginitantras as the Tantras of Wisdom
(Prajnatantras): 545
A Method Tantra is one in which the Mandala shows mainly male deities in order
to train (vini-) men and insiders (svayuthya-), whereas a Wisdom Tantra is one
in which, in order to train women and non-Buddhist outsiders (bahyatlrthika-),
the Mandala shows mainly female deities, deities, that is, who are appropriate
for these. 546 A Method Tantra is one that exhibits deities that purify the outer
and inner aggregates of personality (skandhah), the elements (dhatavah), and
the faculties and their objects (dyatandni), whereas a Wisdom Tantra is one that
exhibits deities that purify the outer and inner channels of the vital energy (nadi)
and the Bodhicitta [semen]. A Method Tantra is one that exhibits deities [whose
appearance and conduct are] in conformity with the [norms of] the world, whereas
a Wisdom Tantra is one that exhibits deities [whose appearance is] contrary to
[these norms of] the world.
Since Sraddhakaravarman states here that the predominance of female deities
is designed to recruit non-Buddhists he can mean only the followers of Sakta
Saivism, since there is no other known group to whom this feature would have
been particularly appealing. As for the other features that he identifies as dis-
tinctive of the Yoginitantras, he does not state explicitly that they were intro-
duced with the same purpose in mind; but it seems to me probable that he means
this to be understood, since the transgressive character of these deities, his third
distinctive feature, is indeed a fundamental characteristic of the goddesses wor-
shipped by these outsiders.
The Buddhism sponsored by the Palas had come a long way: too far, in fact,
for those conservative Buddhist monks at Vajrasana who adhered to the ancient
545 rNal 'byor bla na medpa'i rgyud kyi don la 'jugs pa bsdus pa, ff 103v7— 104r3: gang
du skyes pa dang rang gi sde pa 'dul ba'i phyir lha po'i mam pa mang par ston pa'i
dkyil 'khor ni thabs kyi rgyud do | gang du bud med dang phyi rol mu stegs can 'dul
ba'i phyir de dag dang rjes su mthun pa'i lha mo'i mam pa mang pa'i dkyil 'khor
ston pa ni shes rob kyi rgyud do \ gang du phyi nang gi phung po dang khams dang
skye mched kyi mam par dag pa'i lha ston pa ni thabs kyi rgyud do | gang du phyi
nang gi rtsa dang byang chub kyi sems mam par dag pa'i lha ston pa ni shes rab kyi
rgyud do | gang du 'jig rten dang rjes su mthun pa'i lha'i mam pa ston pa ni thabs
kyi rgyud do | gang du jig rten dang 'gal ba'i lha'i mam pa ston pa ni shes rab kyi
rgyud.
546 p ar t f thjg formulation, namely the doctrine that the Yogatantras are designed to
appeal to men and the Yoginitantras to women, has scriptural status, being found in
the mKha' 'gro ma'i dra ba'i rdo rje gur rgyud (Dakinivajrapanjaratantra), f. 104v5—
6: skyes bu mams ni gdul ba'i phyir \ mal 'byor rgyud ni yang dag bshad \ btsun mo
mams ni bsdu ba'i phyir | mal 'byor ma yi rgyud bshad do 'The Yogatantras were
taught in order to train (*vinayanaya) men. The Yoginitantras were taught in order
to recruit (*samgrahdya) women'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Buddhism of the Sravakayana. For according to the testimony of Taranatha
they broke up the silver image of Heruka in the temple and burnt the collection
of Tantras housed there, saying that these were the teachings not of the Buddha
but of Mara, the evil obstructor of the Buddha's enlightenment. 547
The Reflux of Buddhist Saktism into the Saktism of Bengal. In-
deed, Buddhism had assimilated the Sakta Saiva style of religion so thoroughly
that some of its creations went on to be adopted into the later Sakta Saivism of
eastern India with little or no revision. This is the case with the goddesses Chin-
namasta and Ugratara. The Buddhist origin of Chinnamasta is certain, since
her Sakta Mantra is SRIM HRIM KLlM AIM VAJRAVAIROCANIYE HUM HUM PHAT
SVAHA, and the two companions that flank her are Dakini and Varnini. 548 In the
Buddhist prototype the flanking goddesses are Vajravarnani and Vajravairocani,
and the Mantra for recitation (japamantrah) is OM SARVABUDDHADAKINIYE
OM OM VAJRAVARNANlYE OM VAJRAVAIROCANIYE HUM HUM HUM PHAT PHAT
SVAHA. 549 Moreover, the procedure of her visualization retains features dis-
tinctive of her Buddhist Sadhana, notably that one is to visualize the goddess
standing on a red sun-disk marked with a Yoni triangle on a white lotus in one's
navel. 550 The only differences here are that in the Buddhist Sadhana the triangle
547 Rgya gar chos 'byung, p. 168, 11. 14-: he ru ka'i sku dngul las byas pa chen po zhig
dang | sngags kyi glegs bam mang dag cig yod pa si nga gling pa sogs nyan thos
se ndha pa ga' zhig gis 'di dag ni bdud kyis byas pa'o zhes byas nas | glegs bam
mams kyis bud shing byas | sku gzugs de yang dum bur bgos nas rnyed pa byas
so 'There was a great silver statue of Heruka and many manuscripts of [texts of
the] Mantra[naya]. Some Saindhava Sravakas from such [regions] as Sri Lanka,
saying that these manuscripts had been created by Mara, used them as fuel, and,
moreover, after dividing up the image into pieces pocketed them'; HBI, p. 279.
548 Saktapramoda, p. 222 (her Mantra); pp. 221, 224-225 (the visualization of Chinna-
masta, Dakini and Varnini)
549 Abhisamayamanjari, pp. 151—152.
550 Saktapramoda, pp. 224-225, Purascaryarnava, p. 816, Karmakanda, vol.
4, p. 239d-240a (in the Kashmirian Saktasraddha): svanabhau nirajam
dhyayec chuddham vikasitam sitam | tatpadmakosamadhye tu mandalam canda-
rocisah | japakusumasamkasam raktabandhukasamnibham | rajahsattvatamo-
rekhayonimandalamanditam | madhye tasya mahadevlm suryakotisamaprabham
| chinnamastam kare vame dharayantlm svamastakam | prasaritamukhim
bhimam lelihanagrajihvikam \ pibantim raudhirim dharam nijakanthavinirgatam
| viklrnakesapasam ca nanapuspasamanvitam \ daksine ca kare kartrim
mundamalavibhusitam | digambaram mahaghoram pratyalidhapade sthitam
| asthimaladharam devlm nagayajhopavltinim | ratikamoparistham ca sada
dhyayanti mantrinah 'He should visualize a pure, open, white lotus in his navel,
the disc of the sun in the centre of the seed-pod of that lotus with the colour of
the Japa flower, resembling the red Bandhuka blossom, adorned by a Yoni triangle
with [three] linesf, red, white, and black representing the Gunas] Rajas, Sattva,
and Tamas. At its centre Mantra adepts always visualize the Great Goddess Chin-
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The Saiva Age
has the strictly Buddhist name dharmodayd and that the goddess is visualized
as a transformation out of a yellow HRIH visualized in that triangle. 551
In the case of Tara the Buddhist origin is even more apparent, since here the
dependence extends to textual borrowing. For the Sakta literature of the worship
of this goddess has incorporated the Mahacinakramatarasadhana of the Bud-
dhist Sasvatavajra, which appears almost in its entirety in the eleventh chapter
of the Sakta Phetkarinitantra.
I am unable to determine within narrow limits how long after Sasvatavajra
this Tantra was composed. 552 The earliest mention of the text in sources known
to me is in 2.15 of the Sarvolldsatantra of Sarvanandanatha, in a list of a canon
of sixty-four Tantras cited from the Todalatantra but not appearing in the pub-
lished text of that work. It is probable that Sarvanandanatha, who wrote his
work in Senhati in what is now Bangladesh, was born around the beginning
of the fifteenth century. 553 It is tempting to assume that the PhetkdrinT was
written at a time closer to Sasvatavajra's than to Sarvanandanatha's, that is to
namasta shining like ten million suns, holding her own [severed] head in her left
hand, fearsome, with the mouth [of her severed head] open wide, with the tip of
her tongue licking greedily, drinking the stream of blood that gushes from her neck,
her hair loosened, adorned with various flowers, holding a chopping-knife in her
right hand, adorned with a garland of heads, naked, most terrible, standing in the
Pratyalidha posture, with a necklace of bones and a snake as her sacred thread,
standing on Kama and Rati'.
551 Abhisamayamahjarl, p. 151: svandbhisthasuklakamalasuryasthitasindurdruna-
dharmodaydmadhye pitahrihkdrajd svayam eva kartitasvamastakam vamahasta-
sthitam dhdrayanti . . . 'Arising by transformation of a yellow syllable HRIH in the
centre of a vermilion-red Dharmodaya triangle upon a sun[-disc] on a white lotus in
his navel, holding her own head, which she herself has severed, in her hand . . . '.
552 rp^g t a k e _ over f Sasvatavajra's Sddhana of Ugratara (= Sddhanamdld 101) by
the Phetkdrinitantra and its subsequent influence have been demonstrated by
Buhnemann (1996). Sasvatavajra flourished around the last decades the tenth
century and the first decades of the eleventh. His Bdhyapujdvidhi (= Sddhanamdld
252), Hastapujdvidhi (= Sddhanamdld 253), and Cakrasamvarabalividhi are found
in the series of ritual texts published in FlNOT 1934 from a manuscript brought
to China in 1057 by the Dhyana master Baocang on his return from India. His
Sddhana of Ugratara is found in the *Sddhanasataka (a facsimile of an undated
Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscript from Tibet has been published in Buhnemann 1994
= T5h. 3306 ff.) and was translated into Tibetan by the Indian Pandita *Amogha-
vajra and the Tibetan monk Bari Rin chen grags of Khams (Toh. 3373; DT, Rgyud,
Mu, f. 49vl, colophon: rgya nag po'i rim pa'i sgrol ma'i sgrub thabs slob dpon rtag
pa'i rdo rjes mdzad brjogs so | pa ndi ta don yod rdo rje dang khams pa lo tsd ba
dge slong ba ris bsgyur cing zhus so). The latter was born in 1040 (Blue Annals,
pp. 73 and 405) and was appointed to the chair of Sa skya in 1103 (Blue Annals,
p. 211). A Sanskrit manuscript of his most important work, his commentary on the
Laghusamvara, translated by Bu ston Rin chen grub (Toh. 1410), survives in the
Potala Palace in Lhasa, where it awaits study.
553 Sanderson 2007b, p. 236, fn.89.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
say, when the Buddhist Mantranaya was still at its height in eastern India, be-
fore the destruction of the great monasteries around 1200. But this destruction
did not eliminate Tantric Buddhism and its literature from the region at a sin-
gle stroke. For it was still alive in the early fifteenth century, when Vanaratna
(1384-1468) travelled to Tibet in 1426, 1433, and 1453, gave various Tantric ini-
tiations, notably in the Kdlacakra according to the system of Anupamaraksita,
and assisted in the translation of Tantric texts, as is attested in the biography
of this extraordinary figure given by Gzhon nu dpal (1392-1481), 554 who col-
laborated with him in a translation of the *Trayodasdtmakasricakrasamvara-
mandalavidhi (Toh. 1489). We also have the Vanaratnastotrasaptaka, a San-
skrit hymn in praise of Vanaratna composed during his lifetime by a devout
lay Buddhist Aditya, whom both the Sanskrit and Tibetan colophons say was
a native of Magadha; 555 and we have a manuscript of the Mahayana classic Bod-
hicarydvatdra copied by a lay Buddhist in Bengali characters at Venugrama in
1436. 556
After her incorporation from the Mantranaya Tara became with Daksinakali
and Tripurasundari one of the three principal deities in the east-Indian Sakta
system of the ten Mahavidyas, which soon became widely disseminated through-
out the subcontinent. Thus in a passage cited from the scripture Jndnadvipa in
the Sarvolldsatantra (3.1-29) the ten Mahavidyas are said to be [Daksina]kali
(Syama), Tara, and Tripurasundari (Sodasi), with the third dividing into eight:
herself and the seven others that make up the total often, namely Bhuvanesvari,
Bhairavi, Chinnamasta, Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, Matarigi, and Kamala. The
centrality of these three goddesses is reflected in the corpus of east-Indian Sakta
scriptures. The Todalatantra teaches the rites of these three alone, and the
Brhannllatantra follows the same model but adds Kamakhya, the great goddess
of Assam. Their centrality is also evident among the Paippaladin Atharvavedins
of Orissa; for when they absorbed the influence of the Saktism of Bengal in the
latest stratum of their diverse Angirasakalpa corpus it was principally the rites
of Daksinakali and Tara that they adopted. 557
The importance of Tara in late east-Indian Saktism is independently
554 Blue Annals, pp. 797-805. On the career of Vanaratna see Erhard 2004.
555 Hahn 1996, p. 37: samdptam idam [vanajratnastotrasaptakam | krtir magadha-
deslyadityanam iti; p. 40: dpal Idan bla ma nags kyi rin chen bstod pa bdunpa 'di
ni rdzogs so | yul ma ga dha nas byung ba'i bsnyen dam pa nyi ma pa zhes bya bas
mdzad pa'o (*samaptam idam srlguruvanaratnastotrasaptakam | krtir magadha-
deslyaparamopasakadityanam).
556 Shastri 1917, p. 21: ASB MS 8067. The scribe identifies himself as Sadbauddha-
karanakayasthathakkura Amitabha.
557 Sanderson 2007b, pp. 235-236, fn. 88.
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The Saiva Age
confirmed by the existence of substantial texts devoted exclusively to her
worship, notably the Tararahasyavrtti of Gaudiya Sarikara composed in 1630,
the Tarabhaktisudharnava, a work in some 11,000 verses composed by Nrsimha
Thakkura c. 1688, the Tarabhaktitarahgini of Kasinatha, composed in 1682
at the request of Krsnacandra, Maharaja of Nadia in West Bengal, and two
other works with the same title, one by Vimalanandanatha and the other by
Prakasanandanatha.
The Jains' Adaptation of the Saiva Mantrasastra
Jainism too enjoyed royal support during this period, notably in western
India under the Caulukyas and in Karnataka among the Garigas of Talakad,
the Rastrakutas, and Hoysalas; 558 and it too developed a Tantric ritual culture
along Saiva lines for the propitiation (aradhana) of Mantra-goddesses for mun-
dane benefits using Mudras, Japa, and offerings into fire (homah). Among god-
desses worshipped in Jaina rites for such purposes are Laksmi and Vagisvari
(Sarasvati) belonging to the higher world, the Vidyadevis belonging to the mid-
dle, 559 and, most important, in the lower world the Yaksi attendants of the
Tirtharikaras, associated with major Jaina pilgrimage sites, notably Ambika
(/Kusmandini), the attendant of Neminatha at Girnar, Cakresvari, the attendant
of Rsabha at Satrunjaya, Padmavati, the attendant of Parsvanatha at Sravana
Belgola, and Jvalamalini, the attendant of Candraprabha. 560
That these deities were developed on the basis of the Saiva tradition
is more transparently obvious here than in Buddhism. Thus the Bhairava-
padmavatikalpa, the Digambara Mallisena's Paddhati on the propitiation of
Padmavati, written in 1057 equates her with Totala, Tvarita, Nitya, Tripura,
and Tripurabhairavl, all well-known Mantra-goddesses of the Sakta Saivas. 561
558 See Stein 1998, especially pp. 147-152.
559 In the classical listing these are the following eighteen: Rohini, Prajnapti,
Vajrasrhkhala, Vajrankusa, Apraticakra, Purusadatta, Kali, Mahakali, Gauri,
Gandhari, Sarvastramahajvala, Manavi, Vairotya, Acchupta, Manasi, and
Mahamanasi.
560 For images of Ambika, Cakresvari, Padmavati, and Jvalamalini see, e.g., AIISPL,
Accession numbers 45246, 10029, 58659, and 19995. On the cult of Padmavati see
Jhavery 1944. On the cult of Jvalamalini see Settar 1969.
561 On the worship of goddesses in Jainism and their division between the three worlds
(urdhvalokah, tiryaglokah, and adholokah) see Cort 1987. On the centrality of
the culture of Mantras and Mantrasiddhas in medieval Jainism see the survey
and analysis by Paul Dundas (1998), who writes there of "the Jain mantrasastra' &
partial linkage to an ultimately Saiva-inspired style of religiosity" (p. 36), of the
Jhanarnava of the Digambara Subhacandra, probably in the tenth century, that
it "blends much of the "software" of Saiva mantrasastra with specifically Jaina so-
-243-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Unlike Saivism, Pancaratra, and Tantric Buddhism in its mature form,
Jaina Tantrism did not claim to offer Jainas a new path to liberation. It
remained entirely focused on mundane benefits. Nonetheless it was not the
preserve of the laity. Monks produced the manuals and monks were held to
perform these propitiations. Thus Yasobhadrasuri and other Mantra-adepts
(mantrikah) use the power that they have obtained by propitiating the goddess
Kurukulla to unblock the throat of Devacarya when on the sixteenth day of a
debate in the court of the Caulukya Siddharaja between him and the Digambara
Kumudacandra the latter had used his supernatural power to silence him
by causing him to choke; 562 the Jaina Guru of king Ajayapala undertakes a
two-month propitiation of Ambika on the Raivataka mountain at Girnar in
order to gain for himself the boon of equality with the renowned Svetambara
Hemacandra and for his patron that of equality with Kumarapala, the great
Caulukya king of Gujarat. 563 Hemacandra, Devendrasuri, and Malayagirisuri
go to the same mountain at night to undertake the propitiation of the Siddha-
cakramantra, after first performing preliminary rites to summon the presiding
goddess Ambika into their presence; 564 and Hemacandra propitiates the spell-
goddess Tribhuvanasvamini in Anahillapattana, the Caulukya capital, in order
to ask her about the previous birth of his pupil Kumarapala. 565
As in the non-Jaina tradition the goddesses were put to work to serve the
interests of rulers. The Prabandhacintamani of Meruturigacarya, written at
Vardhamana (Vadhvan) in eastern Kathiavad in 1304, claims that Padmavati
was propitiated by means of a fire-sacrifice by a Digambara monk in order to
protect Varanasi, the capital of king Jayacandra (in the late twelfth century),
from attack by a Muslim army; 566 bards in Karnataka at the court of Yasodhara
teriological concerns" (p. 35), and of the Bhairavapadmavatlkalpa that it "contains
an account of the well-known six magical arts (satkarmani), not greatly dissimilar
from their Hindu equivalents" (p. 33).
862 Merutunga, Prabandhacintamani, p. 169: sodase dine akasmike devacaryasya ka-
nthdvagrahe mantrikaih sriyasobhadrasuribhir atulyakurukulladeviprasadalab-
dhavarais tatkanthapithat ksanat ksapanakakrtakarmananubhavat kesakandukah
patayam cakre.
863 Kumarapaladevaprabandha §54: cintitam devataradhanam vina manorathanam
siddhir na | ato raivatake gatva devim ambam paritosya hemacaryasamo bhavi-
syami | upavasatrayam tad anu talahattikdyam paranam | ekah paricaryakarah |
evam masa 2 tapahprante devy amba pratyaksa jata karyam vada | tenoktam yadr-
sah kumarapaladevas tadrsam ajayapaladevam yadrso hemacaryas tadrsam mam
vidhehiti.
864 Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §61. On the worship of the Siddhacakra see
Jhavery 1944, pp. 167-169.
865 Kumarapaladevaprabandha §21.
566 Prabandhacintamani, pp. 294-295.
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The Saiva Age
are said to have invoked Aparajita to secure the king victory in battle; 567 and
these powers are fully confirmed by the manuals for these rites. According to
the unpublished Jvalamalinikalpa, composed by the Digambara Indranandin in
Karnataka in 939, the benefits that can be attained by propitiating Jvalamalini
include the splitting open of the gates of enemy forts; and the Bhairava-
padmdvatlkalpa teaches a spell (vidyd) for making one's enemies fall asleep
and magical receipts both for causing dissension among them (vidvesanam) and
causing their death (mdranam). Moreover, Padmavati was the lineage goddess
(kuladevT) of a number of Jaina ruling houses in Karnataka 568 and functioned in
this capacity much as she would have done if they had not been converted. Thus
she appears in a local manifestation as the Padmavati of Sasakapura (Sosavuru)
in a Jaina myth of the origin of the name of the Hoysala (/Poysala) dynasty
related in an inscription of 1133. 569 When a Jaina ascetic Yogin was trying to
subjugate this goddess with a Mantra and a tiger sprang out to break its power
the ascetic commanded king Sala, saying "Strike [it], O Sala" (poy sala). 570 The
king then worshipped the goddess under the name Vasantika. Since this story
introduces an account of the conquests of the dynasty it is probable that the
goddess is seen here in the manner of the martial lineage goddesses of the Sakta
Saiva type venerated by non-Jaina kings during the early medieval period as
the source of their sovereignty and military might.
In one important respect, however, Jaina lineage goddesses were bound to
differ from their non-Jaina counterparts. Since Jainas are the strictest of vege-
tarians and are rigorously opposed to the harming of any living creature, their
goddesses, like those of the Buddhists, had to renounce the animal sacrifices that
were so conspicuous a part of their cult in non-Jaina lineages. 571 Thus the Osval
567 Cort 1987, p. 248.
568 Notably the Silaharas, Rattas, and Santaras; see Cort 1987, p. 243.
569 EC 5:124.
670 Cf. EI 6:10, 1. 6: sa hoy saleti prdpat tarn kila vinihatya hoysaldkhydm.
571 In the Buddhist case, however, animal sacrifice, though unusual, does occur. We
see it in the mahdbali sacrifice performed by the Buddhist Newars at Lagankhel
on the occasion of the chariot festival of Bugmalokesvara (Karunamaya); see Sin-
clair 2008. Nor is this a recent innovation. See Catusplthatantra ff. 30r2-32r3.
The Mantra for the Bali there (f. 31v2-) is derived from a Saiva prototype seen
in the Vidyapitha's Nisisamcdra (14.56—63; ff. 47v5— 48v2: ekavrkse smasdne vd
. . .). My pupil Peter-Daniel Szanto has kindly informed me (personal communi-
cation, 4 March, 2009) that the verses that immediately precede that Mantra in
this manuscript, containing the reference to sanguinary offerings, are not part of
the original Catuspitha but have been added from the Catuspithamandalopdyikd
of Caryavratipada (19.30-33 [f. 20rl). On that work, its author, and the incorpo-
ration of material from it in this MS of the Catuspitha see Szanto 2008a. He
has also drawn my attention to references to sanguinary offerings elsewhere in the
Catuspitha itself, in the Sadhana of Dakinl (2.4.63-66) and in that of Cusini (2.4.75),
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Jainas of Rajasthan and Saurashtra hold that their lineage deity Saccika or Sac-
ciya adopted her present non-violence only when she and they were converted
to Jainism by the monk Ratnaprabhasuri, probably in the twelfth century, 572 in
consequence of his having miraculously cured a boy of snake-bite when he had
already been thought dead and prepared for cremation. They claim that be-
fore their conversion they had been Rajput warriors — a claim also found among
other Jain castes — 573 and she a fierce Camunda whom they propitiated with the
Tantric rites of the Vamamarga. Her pre-Jaina past is still visible in her tem-
ple at Osian near Jodhpur, the Osvals' original home. For the outer wall of her
innermost shrine shows images of Camunda, Mahisasuramardini, Sitala, and a
naked Bhairava. 574
We have another story of the conversion of a lineage goddess in Jaina
accounts of the life of the Caulukya king Kumarapala of Gujarat (r. 1143-
1174), who converted from Saivism to Jainism under the influence of the
illustrious Svetambara scholar monk Hemacandra. According to these accounts
Kanthesvari, the lineage goddess of the Caulukyas, and the other goddesses
associated with her had always been placated during the nine days of the annual
and to a reference to the attracting of animal and human victims (pasuh) at the end
of the ninth chapter of the Vajradaka. That passage is derived from Laghusamvara
32.1-2 and 31.2-3b. See also here p. 182, on human sacrifice.
572 See Dundas 2002, p. 149.
573 On the claims of Rajput ksatriya ancestry among the Jain castes of the Osvals,
Khandelvals, Agravals, and Srimals see Babb 1993, pp. 7-8.
574 Agrawala 1954 and 1956; Cort 1987, pp. 243-244; and Babb 1993, pp. 9-10,
following accounts in Bhutoriya 1988. For photographs of the Camunda and
Mahisasuramardini see AIISPL, Accession numbers 59386 and 59388. An account
of the conversion of Saccika is found in a chronicle, the Upakesagacchapattavali,
of the monastic community followed by the Osval laity, which ends with the in-
stallation of Siddhasuri in [Vikrama] 1655. See pp. 237-238 of the translation by
Hoernle (1890), who does not provide the original, for which see Agrawala 1954.
Ratnaprabhasuri describes Saccika in that account as follows (Hoernle's transla-
tion, p. 237), addressing her former devotees: 'O ye faithful, ye should not go to the
temple of Sachchika-devi; she is merciless, and incessantly delights in hearing the
sound of the breaking of bones and the killing of buffaloes, goats, and other animals;
the floor of her temple is stained with blood, and it is hung about with festoons of
fresh skins; the teachers of her devotion, rites, and service, are cruel men; she is
altogether disgusting and horrible'. The text continues: 'Hearing these words of the
Acharya, they replied, — "What you say, O Lord, is quite true; but if we do not go to
worship that cruel Devi, she will slay us and our families." The Acharya, however,
promised to protect them; whereupon they ceased to go any longer to the temple
of the Devi'. Ratnaprabhasuri then goes on to convert the goddess, a tradition also
asserted in an inscription of 1598 (Cort 1987, p. 244). Thereafter, it is said, she
would accept no sanguinary offerings and not even red flowers, because they resem-
ble such offerings.
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The Saiva Age
Navaratra festival by the sacrifice of thousands of goats and buffaloes. 575 But
this stops when Kumarapala, now a convert to Jainism, declares a fourteen-year
ban on the taking of life. Kanthesvari appears before the king and demands to
know why she and the other goddesses have been denied their usual sacrifices.
When he explains that he cannot sacrifice to her now that he is a Jaina she is
enraged and strikes him on the head with her trident, causing leprous sores to
break out on his body. Hemacandra miraculously cures his affliction, tries to
persuade the goddess to accept in future offerings of vegetarian food of equal
value, and when this fails binds her with a Mantra. Thoroughly humbled, she
begs the king to free her, promising that if she is released she will give up her
ways and work instead to police his ban on the slaughter of animals throughout
his realm. With Hemacandra's permission he releases her and she takes to her
new role as the king's informer with all the zeal of the convert. 576 She reports a
vassal king in Saurastra for secretly butchering goats in his home: Kumarapala
sends his minister Udayana at the head of an army to punish him. 577 She
reports a merchant for plucking a louse from his wife's head and crushing it:
his entire property is seized and the money used to fund the building of a Jaina
monastery, named accordingly the Monastery of the Louse (Yukavihara). 578
575 Three thousand seven hundred goats and thirty-seven buffaloes were to be sac-
rificed: a hundred goats and one buffalo on the first day, two hundred goats
and two buffaloes on the second, three hundred goats and three buffaloes on the
third, and so on, so that nine hundred goats and nine buffaloes were sacrificed
on the ninth (Mahanavami). See Somatilakasuri, Kumarapaladevacarita vv. 387-
389: suddhasamyaktvaputatma mahanavamiparvani \ kumarapalabhupala
amigadibhir akhyata || 388 devi * kanthesvari (corr. :kamtesvariF,d.) gotradevi svam
bhavyam ihate | ekam chagasatam caiko mahisah pratipaddine || 389 etavad eva
dvigunam dvitiye divase punah \ trtiye trigunam yavan navame *navasamgunam
(corr. :nava samgunam Ed.); and Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §75: athamarim
pravartayati rajani asvinasuklapakso 'gat \ tatra *kanthesvaryadidevatanam
(kanthesvaryadi corr. : kantesvaryadi Ed.) arcakair vijhaptam deva saptamyam
sapta satani pasavah sapta mahisas ca devatanam puro diyante rajha | evam
astamyam astau satani navamyam nava sataniti. In the editions of the
Kumarapaladevacarita and the Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha the goddess'
name appears in the form Kantesvari. I have corrected this to Kanthesvari on the
dubious strength of a passage in the Prabandhacintamani of Merutunga in which
the author implies that she owes her name to the fact that in the eighth century
Vanaraja, the founder of the Capotkata dynasty that preceded the Caulukyas at
Anahillapattana, had a shrine built for her in the kanthah ('narrow entrance'?)
of his palace (p. 35: tatha ca tena dhavalagrhakanthe kanthesvariprasadas ca
karitah).
576 Kumarapaladevacarita, vv. 387-396 and Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §75.
577 Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §85.
578 Kumarapaladevacarita, vv. 404-406; cf. Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §77. The
same sources relate another occasion on which the Jaina Mantravada was used
to curb a sanguinary goddess. Hemacandra and Yasascandra fly through the
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Thus, while drawing heavily on the Sakta Saiva tradition of the propitia-
tion of Mantra-goddesses, the Jain Mantravada, was bound to keep itself free of
the sanguinary aspects of those cults and, also, one would assume, of all other
transgressive elements that would conflict with the ascetic character of the Jaina
path, notably the use of flesh and alcohol, and the employment of female consorts.
However, that exclusion was not as complete as one would expect in respect of
the last of these elements. This is apparent in the accounts of two of the pro-
pitiations mentioned above. We are told that when Hemacandra, Devendrasuri,
and Malay agirisuri undertook the propitiation of the Siddhacakramantra on the
Raivataka mountain they did so with a Padmini in the person of the wife of a vil-
lage headman as their Tantric assistant (uttarasadhakatvena). 579 How the wife
of the village headman assisted in the propitiation is not stated. But the story of
Hemacandra's propitiation of Tribhuvanasvamini is more explicit. Again he has
the assistance of a Padmini. The daughter-in-law of a farmer is brought to the
city for this purpose and the goddess shows her favour after Hemacandra has
air from Anahillapattana to Bhrgupura (Bhrgukaccha, Bharukaccha, modern
Bharuch/Broach) and attempt to tame the Tantric goddess Saindhava, who had
possessed the minister Ambada. She shows her contempt for Hemacandra by stick-
ing out her tongue. Yasascandra punishes her by pounding some grains of rice in
a mortar. The first blow causes her temple to quake, and the second and third
cause her image to shudder and then be dislodged. She falls at Hemacandra's feet
begging for his protection. See Somatilakasuri's Kumdrapdladevacarita, w. 76-85
and Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §87. Saindhava is no doubt the Sindhavai
Ma whose temple is located outside the walls of Broach to the north, not far from
the temple of Nilakantha. She was receiving goat sacrifices on Mahanavami up to
the 1940s (Desai 1993, p. 48). According to Somatilakasuri, she was the principal
of the non-Jaina deities of the city. Sindhavai Ma also has temples in Ahmedabad,
near Bilimora, and Kayavarohana, Vadodara.
579 Kumarapalaprabodhaprabandha §61: te ca trayah krtapurvakrtyah srl-ambika-
krtasannidhyah subhadhyanadhiradhiyah sriraivatadevatadrstau triyaminyam d-
hvdndvagunthanamudrakaranamantranydsavisarjanddibhir upacarair guruktavi-
dhina samipasthapadministrikrtottarasadhakakriyah srisiddhacakramantram *a-
sadhayan (em. : asadhayat Ed.). And those three, after performing the prelimi-
nary service (purvaseva) and bringing about the presence of Ambika, with their
mind firmly concentrated in the 'pure' mode of meditation, in the sight of the
goddess of the Raivataka mountain, performed at night the Sadhana of the Sid-
dhacakramantra following the procedure taught by the Guru, with all the [re-
quired] rites of summoning, enclosing, making the Mudras, installing the Mantras
[on their bodies], dismissing and the rest, with the actions of the Tantric as-
sistant performed by that Padmini beside them'. According to the erotologi-
cal literature Padmims are one of four classes of ideal love-partner (nayika);
see, e.g., Pancasayakamanjari 1.6: sampurnendumukhi kurahganayana pinastani
daksina mrdvahgi vikacaravindasurabhih syamatha gauradyutih \ alpahararata
vilasakusala hamsasvana sadgatir lajjalur gurudevapujanapara syan nayika pad-
mini; and in Tantric literature Hevajratantra 2.7.2-5 and Samvarodayatantra
31.3-5b.
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The Saiva Age
repeated the Mantra for three days on the Padmini's vulva (tasyd yonau). 580 The
text tells us that Hemacandra's mind remained undisturbed during this prac-
tice, no doubt wishing to stress that he was not compromising the monastic rule
of celibacy. Indeed there is no evidence of which I am aware that the Jaina
Mantravada, unlike Saivism and Tantric Buddhism in its later phases, created
two levels of discipline, one for ordinary practitioners and one for an elite that
transcended the rules that apply to the first. Nonetheless, we see from this story
that it had gone surprisingly far in this direction, too far for some, one suspects,
who would have preferred monks to avoid any practice in which they could be
suspected of departing from the straight and narrow Jain path of purification.
Saivism in the Brahmanical Substrate
As for the long-established brahmanical tradition, the Saivas saw it as sub-
sumed within their own, accepting it as the only valid source of authority in what
they saw as the lesser domain of mundane religion (laukiko dharmah). This per-
ception is much emphasised in their literature, 581 and it is expressed through the
580 Kumar apdladevaprabandha §21: atha srihemdcdryais tribhuvanasvdminim
vidydm drddhayitukdmd bhdnddgdrikam kapardinam prdhur yan mehatdgrdme
trihunasimhah kautumbikah | tasya putrds catvdrah \ laghor vadhuh padmini \
yadi sdydti tadd *tasyd avdcyapradese (corr. : tasy avdcyapradese Ed.) dinatrayam
jape datte devT prasidati | etad atiduskaram | kapardinoktam | cintd na vidheyd |
bhdnddgdrikas tatra gatah kautumbikagrhe \ tena satkrtah | prayojanam prstah |
bhdnddgdrikenoktam laghuputravadhum mamdrpaya | tenoktam kim idam ddisasi
| evam eva \ vicdro 'pi na kartavyah | tenoktam yadi bhavatdm *vicdre samdydtam
idam (?) tadaivam astu \ sukhdsane 'dhiropya pattane samdgatah \ srihemasuribhih
paramdnndhdraparair avikrtacittais tasyd yonau dinatrayam jdpah krtah | devT
tustd 'Then Hemacarya, desiring to propitiate the spell-deity Tribhuvanasvamim
said to his treasurer Kapardin: "There is a farmer called Trihunasimha in Mehata
village. He has four sons. The wife of the youngest is a Padmini. If she comes here
and I offer Japa for three days on her unmentionable part the goddess will favour
me. This is extremely difficult [to accomplish]". Kapardin told him not to worry. So
the treasurer went to the home of the farmer in that [village] and after being hon-
oured was asked his purpose. The treasurer said: "Give me the wife of your youngest
son". [The farmer] said: "Is this an order?". He replied that it was but that he should
not be concerned. [The farmer] said: "So be it, if this is *what you have decided after
due deliberation (?)". So [the treasurer] put her in a comfortable sedan and returned
with her to the capital. The venerable Hemasuri did the Mantra-recitation on her
vulva for three days, intent on eating paramdnnam, with his mind undisturbed [by
lust]'. The goddess was pleased'. The food paramdnnam is, I presume, the dish of
rice, milk, and sugar or jaggery otherwise known as pdyasam and considered the
ideal food for offering to a vegetarian deity.
581 It is encapsulated in the often cited words of their scripture Bhdrgavottara: iti
varndsramdcdrdn manasdpi na lahghayet \ yo yasminn dsrame tisthan diksitah
sivasdsane \ sa tasminn eva samtisthec chivadharmam ca pdlayet 'So he should not
transgress the practices of his caste and [brahmanical] discipline even in thought.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
collocation of the epithets paramamdhesvarah and paramabrahmanyah that is
sometimes found with the titles of our kings in inscriptions. 582
But the brahmanical tradition was not merely accepted by the Saivas. It
was also influenced by them. During this period we find an ever-growing cor-
pus of traditions that while claiming to be on the brahmanical side of the divide
derive from the Saiva, both Saiva devotional literature assigned to the Puranas
and a form of worship that followed Saiva models. In Puranic texts such as
the Uttarabhdga of the Lifigapurdna, 583 the Kdlikdpurdna, the Devlpurdna, and
the Agnipurdna, b8A the boundary between the Smarta and Tantric domains has
almost completely dissolved, prompting the conservative brahmanical author
Ballalasena, the twelfth-century Sena king of Gauda, to reject them as invalid
as sources of the knowledge of religious duty, objecting particularly to their con-
taining instruction on such matters as Saiva initiation and idol consecration. 585
In reality there was no reasonable hope of turning the tide by this period,
as had to be conceded even by so conservative an authority as the Nibandha
on the Ydjnavalkyasmrti compiled by or under Aparaditya, the Silahara king
of Korikana in the last quarter of the twelfth century. While firmly denying in
general the validity of the practices taught in the Saiva scriptures, it admits a
partial exception in the case of the Sthapaka, the priest who consecrates idols
and shrines. It is admitted that he may draw on these texts to supplement the
He should remain in the discipline in which he was when he was initiated into the
Saiva religion and [at the same time] maintain the ordinances of Siva'; see SANDER-
SON 1988, p. 662 (= 1990, p. 139); 1995, p. 23; 2005a, p. 389; 2007a, pp. 231-232.
The Saivas' understanding of how the relation between the general, Vaidika ordi-
nances and those of the Saiva scriptures should be perceived is explored at length
in Sanderson forthcoming b.
582 ^y e gee ^g com bination in the case of the Panduvamsins/Pandavas of Mekala in
the fifth century (Shastri 1995, nos. II: I— II), the Sailodbhava Madhavaraja of
Kongoda in the seventh (EI 6:14), the Pallavas Paramesvaravarman I (c. 669-690)
and Narasimhavarman II (c. 690-728/9) (Mahalingam 1988, nos. 45, 53) around
the turn of the seventh and eighth, the Bhanja Nettabhanja of Orissa in the eighth
(EI 28:41, 11. 16-17), the descendants of King Nimbara of Kartikeyapura in Hi-
machal Pradesh in the ninth and tenth (EI 31:38), and the Eastern Calukyas in
the eleventh (EI 6:35; EI 6:36).
583 On the presence of the Saiva Mantramarga in its Saiddhantika, Daksina
(Bhairava), and Sakta forms in the Uttarabhaga of the Lifigapurdna see SANDER-
SON 2005b, pp. 235-236.
584 On the Agnipurdna's incorporation of the Saiddhantika Saiva Paddhati of
Somasambhu see p. 65 above.
685 In w. 55-67 of the introduction to his Ddnasdgara Ballalasena rejects on these
and allied grounds the Garudapurdna, the Brahmapurdna, the Agnipurdna, the
Vaisnavapurdna in twenty-three thousand verses, the Lifigapurdna in six thou-
sand, the Devlpurdna, and parts of the Bhavisyapurdna. That he did not include
the Kdlikdpurdna in his list strongly suggests that it postdates him.
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The Saiva Age
ritual of consecration when installing a Siva, and likewise on the other appropri-
ate bodies of non-Vedic scripture when consecrating images of the Goddess and
the like, provided that his Vedic procedure needs to be supplemented, provided
that the imported auxiliary does not offend the Vedic procedure in any way, and
provided that he does not take the initiations (diksa) which those scriptures re-
quire. 586 In other words it had to be conceded that a hybrid of Tantric and Vedic
rituals procedures was already an institutional reality; and that this was so is
confirmed by a Saiva source, which protests against their existence, insisting
that patrons should engage only initiated Saiva officiants of full conviction, who
would perform Saiva rituals of consecration uncontaminated by such hybridiza-
tion. 587
586 This position is established at length in the course of the commentary on
Ydjnavalkyasmrti 1.7, which lists the valid sources of knowledge of religious
duty (dharmamulam), namely Sruti, Smrti, and observation of the practice
of exemplary brahmins, supplemented by personal judgement and preference
where the other sources of knowledge leave scope for them. Aparaditya consid-
ers at length and rejects the proposition that the scriptures of the Pasupatas,
Saivas, Pancaratrikas, and others not rooted in the Veda (vedamula-) should
be added to the list (vol. 1, p. 10, 1. 6 ff.). He concludes: tatas ca devapujadau
narasimhapuranadiprasiddhaivetikartavya grahya nanya | evam dlksayam apy
avagantavyam | na hi purdnaprasiddhayam dlksayam jatisodhanam asti (vol. 1,
p. 14, 11. 17-19) . . . evam pratisthayam api puranadyuktaivetikartavyata grahya
nanya tesam eva vyamisradharmapramanatvena bhavisyatpurane parijnatatvat
(p. 15, 11. 1-2) 'And so the procedure for such [ritualsl as the worship of deities
that may be adopted is that taught in such Puranas as the Narasimha- , and no
other. The same should be understood to apply in the case of initiation. For in
the initiation established in the Puranas the [objectionable Saiva] rite of the elim-
ination of [the initiand's] caste is lacking. . . . Equally, in the case of rituals for
the installation [of the image of a deity and the like only the procedure taught in
Puranas and [related texts] may be adopted, since the Bhavisyatpurana acknowl-
edges none but these as sources of valid knowedge of hybrid religious duty'. By
'hybrid' (vyamisra-) Aparaditya means procedures that incorporate auxiliary ele-
ments from the Tantras. The issue of this hybrid installation rituals is taken up in
detail on pp. 16, 1. 1-19, 1. 12.
587 This source is the Saiddhantika scripture Devyamata. It devotes several verses
to distinguishing types of Sthapaka and to exhorting patrons to avoid all but one,
who is described as learned both in the general Saiva scriptures and in the special-
ized Tantras of Installation, as content with the teaching of Siva, focused wholely
upon it, strictly adhering to the discipline of the initiated (samayacarah), with-
out any inclination towards the scriptures of the uninitiated ipasusastram), tak-
ing no pleasure in the mundane religion, but delighting in the religion of Siva
alone: (2.16cd, 17ab, 19ab, 20ab): acaryah sivasastrajhahpratisthatantraparagah ||
... 17 sivasastrarthasamtustah samayacarapalakah | . . . 19ab sivasastraikacittatma
pasusastraparahmukhah | ...20 virakto laukike dharme sivadharmanurahjitah.
Sthapakas to be avoided are those who are Vaidika in their religious commit-
ment and learning. Some of these have no more than a partial knowledge of the
Tantras of Installation; but they should be avoided even if they mastered both
the Tantras of Installation and the general Saiva scriptures (2.7-8b and 2.13-14):
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Instances of incorporation of Saiva ritual in the Smarta domain can be ad-
duced from most regions and periods; 588 but perhaps the most striking because it
was so widely disseminated and accepted by those who considered themselves to
be on the Smarta side of the divide is represented by the Prapancasara attributed
to Sarikaracarya and the closely related Sdraddtilaka of Laksmanadesika. These
two texts, which, I have argued, were composed in Orissa or on the basis of Oris-
san tradition, most probably in the twelfth century, 589 present a system of ritual
that differs from the properly Tantric only in its catholic character — in Smarta
fashion it includes rituals of propitiation for all the main deities — , its avoidance
of all the elements of 'impure' practice that the Smartas castigated in the Saiva
cults of Bhairava and the Goddess, and its expurgation of doctrines that were
contrary to what could be found in acceptably brahmanical sources, notably the
doctrine of the thirty-six levels of reality (tattvani).
THE CAUSES OF THE DOMINANCE OF SAIVISM
Saivism, then, was undoutedly the most successful among the religious sys-
tems that received royal patronage during the early medieval period. It was
the most commonly adopted. Of the others some were absorbed by it and the
rest while flourishing independently beside it came to remodel themselves along
Saiva lines.
No doubt there were many factors that led to Saivism's rise to dominance
within this complex environment, and no doubt many of these will remain in-
visible to us, since they could be discerned and weighed only if we had access
to much more detailed evidence of the activities and motivations of individuals
and institutions, both religious and political. Nonetheless, I venture a general
explanation.
The Early Medieval Process
On the basis of the epigraphical record of acts of patronage, and consider-
ing evidence of changes over time within the Saivas' prescriptive literature, I
pratisthatantrakincijjnah pasusastranuranjitah \ tattvopadesahinas ca nacaryo na
ca sadhakah || 8 tena samsthapitam lihgam siddhidam na kadd cana | ... 13 pa-
davakyapramanajho brahmano vedaparagah | pratisthatantrakincijjnah sthapako
na prasasyate || 2.14 pratisthatantratattvajnah sivasastravisaradah | so 'pi na stha-
pakair istah pasusastranuranjitah.
588 One of these, the assimilation of Sakta Saiva propitiation rites by the Athar-
vavedic tradition of the Paippaladins of Orissa, has been demonstrated at length
in Sanderson 2007b.
589 Sanderson 2007b, pp. 230-233.
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The Saiva Age
propose that the fundamental reason for the religion's success, underlying and
structuring the mass of particulars now lost to view, was that it greatly increased
its appeal to royal patrons by extending and adapting its repertoire to contain a
body of rituals and theory that legitimated, empowered, or promoted key ele-
ments of the social, political and economic process that characterizes the early
medieval period.
These elements were:
1. the spread of the monarchical model of government through the emergence
of numerous new dynasties at subregional, regional, and supraregional
levels;
2. the multiplication of land-owning temples, both royal temples in nuclear
areas and lesser temples in peripheral zones, often established by subor-
dinate local lords, thus promoting the rural economy and the progressive
penetration of the authority of the centre into new territories;
3. the proliferation of new urban centres, both commercial centres that grew
from below through a process of agglomeration, and planned settlements,
growths from above, founded by rulers;
4. the expansion of the agrarian base through the creation of villages, land
reclamation, and the construction of water-reservoirs, wells, and other
means of irrigation, with the steady growth in population that these de-
velopments imply; and
5. the cultural and religious assimilation of the growing population of com-
munities caught up in this expansion. 590
At the same time it took steps to integrate itself with the brahmanical sub-
590 p or thjg positive characterization of the period I am indebted to the work of a num-
ber of historians who in recent decades have shown the invalidity of the widespread
view that it was a time of decline, de-urbanization, fragmentation, and general im-
poverishment in the aftermath of a glorious classical age that culminated under the
Gupta kings and ended with their demise. I acknowledge in particular the research,
conclusions, and hypotheses of Noboru Karashima (1984), R. Champakalakshmi
(1986), Hermann Kulke (1990, 1995a, b), Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya (1994),
Upinder Singh (1994), Burton Stein (1994, 1998), James Heitzman (1995), and
Cynthia Talbot (2001). That judgement, which owes more, one suspects, to the
concept of the European Dark Ages after the collapse of the Roman empire than to
unbiased analysis of India's epigraphical and archaeological record, has its coun-
terpart in the not uncommon assessment that these centuries also witnessed a pro-
gressive degeneration of Sanskritic literary, intellectual, and religious culture. It
is refreshing to see that the work of those historians who are engaging vigorously
with the epigraphical and archaeological evidence of the age has brought forth a
view that is more consonant with the abundant literary evidence of intellectual and
aesthetic vigour.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
strate in ways that rendered it accessible and acceptable to a far wider con-
stituency and therefore all the more appealing to rulers in their role as the
guardians of the brahmanical social order.
Saivism and Monarchy
Saivism's engagement with the first and most crucial of these elements is
apparent in the fact that from the seventh century onwards inscriptions and pre-
scriptive religious texts reveal that Saiva brahmin Gurus were holding the posi-
tion of royal preceptor (rajaguruh) in numerous new kingdoms both on the Indian
subcontinent and in Southeast Asia and in this capacity empowering and legiti-
mating the monarch's rule by granting him Saiva initiation (sivamandaladiksa).
It might be thought that this would have been an unappealing step for any but
the most reclusive and ineffectual of kings, since after initiation Saivas were
obliged to adhere to a complex and time-consuming program of daily and oc-
casional rituals. However, early in the development of the Mantramarga, the
Saivas, no doubt in order to extend their recruitment and hence their influence,
admitted a category of initiates who in consideration of the fact that they were in-
capable of taking on these onerous duties were exonerated from doing so. 591 The
king was considered to qualify for this less arduous route to liberation by reason
of his royal obligations. He was therefore required to adhere only to the obli-
gations of an uninitiated devotee of Siva taught in the texts of the Sivadharma
corpus, which in his case were principally to support the religion and its institu-
tions and to sponsor and appear in conspicuous ceremonies in the civic domain.
Moreover, according to prescriptive sources the king's initiation was to be
followed by a Saiva modification of the brahmanical royal consecration ceremony
(rajyabhisekah), bestowed both on the king and his chief consort, and also given
to the heir apparent at the time that he was consecrated to succeed to his father's
591 The distinction between these two categories of initiate, those who receive initi-
ation with post-initiatory duties (sabija diksa 'initiation with seed' ) and those
who receive it without (nirbija diksa 'initiation without seed'), is not present in
the earliest Saiddhantika scriptures, namely the corpus of Nisvasa texts found in
the Nisvasatattvasamhita codex, the earliest of which, the Mulasutra, was probably
composed at some time between 450 and 550, for which dating see the conclusions of
a recent workshop on this text summarized in the newsletter of the Nepal-German
Manuscript Cataloguing Project (Goodall and Isaacson 2007). On the relatively
archaic character of the Nisvasa corpus see SANDERSON 2001, pp. 22-31 (archaic
features listed in fn. 32, pp. 29-31), and Sanderson 2006. The category of exon-
erated initiates appears later in the Kirana, the Paramesvara, and the Svaccha-
nda, and, following the latter, in the Paddhatis. The textual evidence is given in
Sanderson forthcoming a.
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The Saiva Age
throne (yuvarajabhisekah). 592
This new ceremony was added to the purely Saiva consecrations recognized
by the core tradition, through which a Saiva Guru empowered an initiate to take
office as a Sadhaka (sadhakabhisekah), a specialist in Mantra-rituals for super-
natural effects (siddhih), and that through which a retiring Guru (acaryah) con-
secrated his chosen successor (deary abhisekah), passing on to him his duties. In
this way the monarch was incorporated as a third kind of Saiva initiate, who
differed from the Sadhaka and the Guru not in the character of the initiation
itself but in the consecration ceremony that followed it: while they were to be
consecrated for purely Saiva functions, the king was to be consecrated to take
up office as the "head of [the brahmanical social order of] the caste-classes and
religious disciplines" (varnasramaguruh), 593 the role already assigned to him by
brahmanical prescription. 594
As the function of the Saiva consecration is modified in this case, so its form,
though in general Saiva, incorporates distinctive non-Saiva elements appropri-
ate to its mundane and brahmanical aspects, such as the inclusion of the royal
592 The textual and epigraphical evidence for the practice of royal initiation, and the
textual evidence for the king's exoneration from Saiva duties, and this ancillary
Saiva modification of the brahmanical royal consecration ceremony are presented in
Sanderson forthcoming a. On the brahmanical consecrations of the king, queen,
and heir apparent see Sanderson 2005a, p. 382 and notes 115-117.
593 Naimittikakarmdnusamdhdna f. 74vl: [4.118] varndndm dsramdndm ca gu-
rubhdvdya bhupateh | yo 'bhisekavidhih so 'pi procyate diksitdtmanah 'I shall also
teach the rite of consecration as the means by which a king, provided that he has
received [Saiva] initiation, becomes the patron of the caste-classes and brahmanical
disciplines'.
594 Manusmrti 7.35cd: varndndm dsramdndm ca raja srsto 'bhiraksitd 'The king
has been created as the guardian of the castes and disciplines'; Brhaspatismrti
1.9ab: tasmdd varndsramdndm tu netdsau nirmitah purd 'he was created of old
as the leader of the castes and disciplines'; Visnusmrti 3.1-3: atha rdjadharmdh.
prajdparipdlanam | varndsramdndm sve sve dharme vyavasthdpanam 'Next the du-
ties of the king: protection of his subjects [and] ensuring that the castes and [follow-
ers of the] disciplines keep to their respective duties'; Visnudharmottara 2.65.55:
varndsramavyavasthd tu tathd kdryd visesatah | svadharmapracyutdn raja sva-
dharme viniyojayet 'And his special duty is to establish the castes and disciplines.
The king must force those who have fallen away from their duties [as members and
followers of these] to practice them'. The characterization of the king in accordance
with these injunctions as the Guru of the castes and disciplines (varndsramaguruh)
is a commonplace in our period. See, for example, Sdtvatasamhitd 24.16-17 (>
Isvarasamhitd 17.14-15); Somadeva, Kathdsaritsdgara 12.6.85; Candraprabhasuri,
Prabhdvakacarita v. 284ab; Ksemendra, Avaddnakalpalatd 2.60c and 27.22b. See
also the cognate expressions sarvdsramaguruh and dsramindm guruh in Ne-
tratantra 19.87 and 20.55b, varndsramadharmamarydddedryah and akhildsrama-
guruh in Agamadambara , Act 2, prose after 20 and Act 3, v. 4, and varnaguruh in
RdjatarahginT 3.85ab.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
banners, weapons, and armour in the objects of worship, 595 the seating of the
king on a platform covered with the skins of a fighting bull and a cat, 596 the
595 Naimittikakarmanusamdhana, f. 75r4— vl (4.129c— 132): ghatesv abhyarcya lokesdn
sdstrdn indrapura<h>sardn || 130 sivam agnih ca hetis ca ketum (conj. \ketus Cod.)
cesddivedisu [Marginal glosses: khadgddi on hetis and dhvajacihnam on ketus]
| samnidhlkrtya samtarpya pujayec cakravartinah || 131 udagvedisira<h>sthesu
kalasesuktalaksmasu | anantddisikhandy*antdn (corr. : antd Cod.) digvidiksu
yathdkramam || 132 tasyds tadvad adha<h>sthesu rudramdtrgandrthaddn \
grahdsurapalds*dkhydn (conj. :dkhya Cod.) bhogindm adhipdn api 'He should wor-
ship Indra and the other Lokapalas together with their weapons in the vases, and
then Siva, Agni, the [royal] weapons, and the [royal] banner on the altars begin-
ning [with that] in the northeast. He should then summon, gratify, and worship
the [eight] Universal Monarchs [, i.e. the Vidyesvaras], beginning with Ananta
and ending with Sikhandin, in the vases whose required characteristics have been
stated above, set on the northern altar, and likewise, below that [altar], the Rudras,
the Matrs, Kubera, the Grahas, the Asuras, the flesh-eating [Raksasas], and the
Naga lords'; f. 76r2-4 (4.141—142): sivdgnihetiketundm kdritdbhydm athdrcanam \
pahcagavyam carum tdbhydm dattvd ca dvijasodhanam || svdpayitvd tu tau tatra
saraksau vedikddvaye | prtha<k> prdksirasau mahydm samyatau ksaumasayyayoh
'He should make both [the king and queen] offer worship to Siva, the Fire, the
[royal] weapons, and the [royal] banner, and then give them the five products of the
cow, rice porridge [prepared on the sacred fire], and a tooth-cleaning twig. He should
then have them sleep on the ground with their heads to the east on beds of linen
on the surface of the two altars, having provided them with protection (saraksau).
They should observe chastity [throughout the night].' For the protection mentioned
here see the rites such those of protecting the beds by reciting of the Weapon-Mantra
over them and surrounding them with Weapon-empowered lines of mustard-seeds,
sesame-seeds, and ash set out in Uttarakdmika 23.54-59 (elaborating the related
expression saraksdn svdpayen nisi) and Mrgendra, Kriydpdda 7.98c-103, both cited
in Brunner 1977, pp. 216-221. As for the requirement that the king and queen
should sleep with their heads to the east, this too expresses the relatively mun-
dane nature of this consecration. For at this point in Saiva initiation ritual can-
didates are to sleep with their heads to the east if they seek benefits other than
liberation; see Mrgendra , Kriydpdda 7.99ab: bubhoksoh sayanam kurydd guruh
prdcinamastakam.
596 Naimittikakarmanusamdhana f. 76v4— 5 (4.150— 152b): hetin astrena ketums
ca varmand kahkatdny api [Marginal gloss on kahkatdni: samnahydni] |
sugandhapuspadhupddyair naivedydntaih prapujya ca \\ anantddims ca *vidyesdn
udagvedydm (conj. : ved+ + + + + vedyds Cod.) ca piirvavat | rudrddlms ca ghatesv
istvd vedyor urdhvam athdstaret \\ brhaduksno 'tisurasya vrsadamsasya carfmani]
After worshipping with offerings beginning with fragrant flowers and incense and
ending with cooked food the weapons and the banners with the Weapon-Mantra
and the cuirasses with the Armour-Mantra, he should worship Ananta and the
other *Vidyesvaras on the northern altar (conj.) as before and after worship-
ping the Rudras[, the Matrs, Kubera, the Grahas, the Asuras, the flesh-eating
(Raksasas),] and [the Naga lords] he should spread on the two altars the skins of
a fighting bull and a cat'. Cf. Varahamihira Brhatsamhitd 47.75-76, on the royal
pusyasndnam: gatvd dvitiyavedim samupavisec carmandm upari raja \ deydni caiva
carmdny upary upary evam etdni || vrsasya vrsadamsasya ruros ca prsatasya ca |
tesdm upari simhasya vydghrasya ca tatah param; and Visnudharmottara 2.21.35
on the brahmanical royal consecration (rdjydbhisekah): vrsasya (corr. wrkasya Ed.)
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The Saiva Age
recitation of the Mantra text of sixteen verses prescribed for the brahmanical
prototype when the water of consecration is poured over the king's head, 597 and,
after the ceremony is complete, the king's return to his palace in full military pa-
rade, mounted on an elephant or white horse, preceded by the royal banners, and
showered with parched rice by the women standing on the roofs of the mansions
along his route. 598
Just as this brahmanical rite is subsumed within the Saiva process of initia-
tion and consecration, so its outcome, the king's entitlement to rule as guardian
of the brahmanical social order now entails the additional requirement or, one
might say, compensation to the Saivas for this descent into the mundane, that
he should ensure that the authority of brahmanical prescription be subsumed
within, and subordinate to, that of the Saiva scriptures, an injunction supported
by the promise that by enforcing this hierarchical relationship he will secure the
stability of his rule and kingdom, implying that by neglecting to do so he will
bring about their collapse. 599
vrsadamsasya dvipinas ca bhrguttama | tesam upari simhasya vyaghrasya ca tatah
param.
597 Naimittikakarmanusamdhana ff. 78rl-79rl (interrupted by the loss of a folio),
beginning (4.168-169): loke vede prasiddha<m>s ca vipran etarhi pathayet |
abhisekasisah (corr. : abhisekas ikhah Cod.) slokan rsiprokta<m>s ca tad yatha ||
suras tvam abhisincantu ye ca siddha<h> puratanah \ brahma visnus ca sambhus
ca sakradyas ca marudgandh || . . . . These verses are prescribed for this purpose by
Varahamihira in the first half of the sixth century in Brhatsamhita 47.55-70.
598 Naimittikakarmanusamdhana f. 84r2-5: arudho bhadramatahgam aihava
vajinam sitam || atapatrena subhrena hemadandena *cdrund (conj. :ca + +
Cod.) | *nigrhltatapah (conj. : + + hltatapah Cod.) svetair vljyamanas ca
*camaraih (em. : caparaih Cod.) || caturahgabalopetah puratah ketumalaya
|| astavighno 'nukulena dhutaya + + *vayuna (diagn. conj.:+ + + Cod.) |
saudhagravedikasthabhih kulapatnlbhir adarat || prayuktam lajavarsam ca
manyamano *bahupriyam (conj. wahapriyam Cod.) | praviset svapuram *pauraih
(conj. :pau + Cod.) + + + + vikasibhih.
599 Mohacudottara f. 21v— 22r (4.276—281): srutismrtipuranani agama dharmadesakah
| etair yo vartate raja, sa rajyam bhunjate ciram || 277 puranam badhyate vedair
agamais ca taduktayah | samanyam ca visesam ca saivam vaisesikam vacah ||
278 badhyabadhakabhavena no vikalpyam vicaksanaih \ yad yathavasthitam vastu
sarvajhas tat tad avadet || 279 agamanam bahutve tu yatra vakyadvayam bhavet
| kim pramanam tada grahyam pramanam sahkaram vacah || 280 *granthad
granthantaram tika (?) sapeksanirapeksayoh | samadhanam tayoh karyam
arthapattyadisadhanaih || 281 evam jnatva suradhyaksa nirvrtim paramam vraja \
evam dharmanvite rajhi svarastre sarvada sivam '[The sources] that teach religious
duty are the Vedas, the Dharmasastras, the Puranas, and the Agamas. The Puranas
are outweighed by the Vedas and the teachings of the latter by the Agamas. The
common and the special, the latter being the teachings of Siva, are related so that
the second outweighs the first. The learned should have no doubt about this. [For
it is] all-knowing [Siva that] has taught everything as it truly is. When, there be-
ing a plurality of scriptural authorities, there are two [contradictory] text-passages
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The Saivas also adapted the theory of their ritual practice to enable them to
claim that those rulers who underwent their ceremonies would be empowered in
their efforts to maintain their supremacy and extend it through conquest. The
ceremony of initiation had been conceived as the means of obtaining liberation
and was always presented in these terms in theoretical texts. But a fifteenth-
century Kashmirian scholar can proclaim in a eulogy of his patriline that by
receiving initiation from one of his ancestors kings had expelled their enemies
and long enjoyed distinguished reigns. 600 Similarly, an inscription of the twelfth
or thirteenth century from Hariyana tells us that the effect of the initiation of
King Surapala was to give him power beyond that of all his rivals. 601 It adds
that if his Guru Murtigana initiated a brahmin, a king, or his minister he thereby
made them [respectively] the repository of knowledge, the master of all the earth,
and the foremost of men. 602 In the Malkapuram inscription of A.D. 1261 we
are told that the effect of the initiation given by Visvesvarasiva to the Kakatiya
prince Rudradeva was to make the might of his [right] arm, that is to say his
valour in battle, shine more brilliantly 603 The same notion is apparent in the
great Mebon inscription of A.D. 953 of the Khmer monarch Rajendravarman.
[one non-Saiva and the other Saiva] and the question of which is valid arises one
must privilege the teaching of Siva. The two should be reconciled, as respectively
dependent and independent [in their validity], by means of implication and other
exegetical tools, *[on the evidence of] the texts [themselves in which those state-
ments occur], related texts, and commentary (?). Having understood this, Indra,
achieve the highest bliss. Provided that the king adheres to religion in this manner,
his kingdom will always prosper'.
600 Rajanaka Sitikantha, Rajanakavamsaprasamsa, v. 5ab: tasmdd yodhagurur
babhuva bhagavan samprapya dlksam yatah \prajyam rajyam apastavairinikaras
cakrus dram bhubhujah 'His son was the Venerable Yodha. When kings received
initiation from him they drove off all their enemies and had long and outstanding
reigns'. For the probable identity of these kings see Sanderson 2007a, p. 397.
601 EI I, pp. 61-66, 11.12-13.: tadbhaktimdn murtigano gunindro (corr. :gunimdro
Ep.) babhuva bhupalahrdabjasuryah | saddlksaya yasya sa silrapaladevo
babhuvapratimaprabhavah 'Then there was his devotee Murtigana, foremost of the
virtuous, the sun that opened the lotus that is the heart of the king, by whose excel-
lent initiation Surapaladeva became [a king] whose might was unequalled'.
602 Ibid. 11. 13-14 (continuous with the passage cited in the preceding note): . . . vi-
pram bhumipatim tadlyam athavamatyam sayam diksayet | tarn tarn bodhanidhim
samastaprthivinatham pradhanam nrnam sthanum patrinam atanot tarum iva
sriyajnavalkyo munih 'Any brahmin, king, or minister that he initiated he made
the repository of [all] knowledge, lord of the whole earth, and the foremost of men,
just as the sage Yajnavalkya caused a tree, a [mere] plant, to burst into leaf. When
the dissolute king Supriya contemptuously refused the sacred water and grain that
Yajnavalkya had brought to the palace to restore his health, Yajnavalkya sprinkled
them on to a rotten tree and departed. Seeing that the dead tree immediately burst
into leaf the king tried without success to have him return.
603 Pantulu 1930, v. 22: srivisvesvaradesikendrasivahastodbhasidorvikramas.
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The Saiva Age
In a passage describing his marching forth to war it speaks of the ceremony of
[Saiva] Mandala initiation as intensifying his brilliance, a statement that in the
context must be taken to refer to his power to conquer his enemies. 604
Nor was it only the theory that was adjusted to suit their patrons. According
to the Brhatkalottara the Saiva Guru was to close the initiation ceremony by
giving abhisekah to the horses, elephants, chariots, and soldiers of the army
by sprinkling them with the water from the vase of the Weapon-Mantra {astra-
kalasah), one of the two main vases prepared in the course of the ceremony, "in
order to remove all obstacles and to ensure victory in battle". 605 The Saivas also
created a double of their ritual of post-initiatory consecration {abhisekah) to be
performed for the king before he entered the fray 606 A much elaborated form of
this 'consecration for victory' {jay abhisekah), involving Sakta Saiva rather than
Saiva Mantra-deities and one thousand vases, is taught in the 248 verses of the
27th chapter of the Uttarabhaga of the Lihgapurana.
They also offered a wealth of apotropaic, invigorative, and hostile Mantra-
rites that could be performed on demand for the benefit of the realm, to promote
the success of royal patrons, and to frustrate their enemies. The evidence for such
604 The Mebon inscription (in FlNOT 1925 [=K. 582], pp. 309-352), w. 39-40: itas ta-
to vidyud ivddyutac chris tdvan nrpdndm pracald prakrtyd | ramyd sarat prddur
abhun na ydvad yadiyaydtrdsamayo nirabhrd || 40 tivrdstranirdjanardjitasrir di-
pto mahdmandaladiksayd yah | vidydhgamantrais ca krtdtmaguptih asa[dhaya]t
siddhim uddrabhutim 'The fortune of kings, [though] unstable by nature, did not
flicker here and there like lightning until the charming, cloudless autumn appeared,
the season of his marching forth. His splendour enhanced by the lustration of his
mighty weapons, he himself [made more] brilliant by initiation before the Great
Mandala [of Siva], his person protected by the Vidyaftga Mantras, he accomplished
the Siddhi of total success.'
605 Brhatkalottara A, f. 45v2-3 (22.24c-25b): hastyasvaratha*yodhdndm (em. :yo-
dhydnd Cod.) secanam astravdrind \ kartavyam vighnasamanam samgrdme jaya-
kdranam 'He should [then] consecrate the elephants, horses, and soldiers with wa-
ter from the Weapon[-vase] to remove obstacles and [so] bring about [the king's]
victory [in war]'.
606 Kirana f. 52v (27.23c-25b): prokto 'yam abhiseka<h> syd<d> vijaydrtham
nrpasya ca | 27.24 saubhdgyajananam mukhyam grahaplddnivartakam | sarva-
sampat*pradam srldam (corr. : pradd srldd Cod.) yasoklrtivivardhanam || 27.25
sdntipustikarah proktah seko 'yam vighnandsakah 'This consecration that I have
taught may also be performed to ensure a king's victory. It is the principal
means of bringing about good fortune. It removes oppression by possessing spir-
its. It bestows all success and wealth. It augments [the king's] fame and rep-
utation. I have also taught it as the means of warding off ills, restoring vital-
ity, and eliminating obstacles'; Cf. Siddhdntasdrapaddhati: evam anenaiva vi-
dhind rdjyakdmasya bhrastardjyasya putrakdmdydh saubhdgyakdmdyd abhisekam
kurydt 'Following this same procedure he may perform the consecration for one who
desires sovereignty, for one who has lost his kingdom, and for a woman who desires
a son or good fortune'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
rituals in the scriptural literature of the Saivas, especially in its Sakta Saiva
texts, is pervasive. 607 There is also historical evidence of specific performances.
For example, an inscription of the fifth year of the reign of the Cola Rajadhiraja
II (r. 1163-1179 or 1166-1182) from the Tiruvalisvara temple at Arppakkam
near Kancipuram 608 tells us that when an army from Sri Lanka had invaded
the Pandya country, plundered the treasury of the temple of Ramesvaram, and
interrupted the cult of Siva there, the emperor, fearing that the war might spread
approached a certain Jnanasivadeva of Gauda, who can be seen from his name
to have been a Saiddhantika Saiva Guru, to free the country from this menace
by ritual means. The Guru, we are told, then worshipped Siva for this purpose
for twenty-eight days continuously, and it was reported subsequently that these
'attackers of Siva' (sivadrohi) had indeed been defeated. The Badaun inscription
of Lakhanapala praises the Rajaguru Murtigana for his expertise in "the great
rites of subjection and attraction" (1. 13: vasyakrstimahavidhananipunah); and
Hrasvanatha, a Kashmirian Guru of the Kalikula who also held office as the
minister of peace and war under Yasaskara (r. 939-948), performed a ritual to
kill his king and other rituals to cause dissension and immobilize, presumably
directed against an invading army 609
Just as the Guru imbued the king through the ceremonies of initiation
and consecration with the numinous power of Sivahood in the exercise of his
sovereignty, so the Saiva rites by which the Guru assumed his office ensured
that he, as Siva's agent among men, was imbued with the numen of royalty. As
in the brahmanical consecration of a king, in which the royal astrologer was to
provide him with the royal elephant, horse, throne, parasol, fly-whisk, sword,
bow, and jewels, 610 so at the time of a Guru's consecration he received from his
predecessor the non-martial symbols of sovereignty (rajangani, rdjacihndni),
such as the turban, crown, parasol, sandals, fly-whisk, elephant, horse, and
palanquin. 611 To these we may add the throne supported by sculpted lions
607 For some examples see Sanderson 2007a, p. 281, fn. 166.
608 ARE 20 of 1899, SII 4:456; ARE 1899, §§23-38 (partial translation in §34).
609 See Sanderson 2007a, pp. 280-291; 2007b, pp. 295-296.
610 Visnudharmottara 2.4.18c-20b: tato 'bhisekasambharams tasya kuryat sa daivavit
| kunjaram turagam kuryat tasya rajfiah pariksitau | bhadrasanam ca chattram ca
valavyajanam eva ca \ khadgaratnam taiha capam ratnani vividhani ca.
611 Bhojadeva, Siddhantasarapaddhati f. 41v (< Svacchandatantra 4.470): usnisa-
makutacchatrapadukacdmarahastyasvasibikadirdjahgani . . . dattva. Svacchan-
datantra 4.70b has a throne or seat (chatram padukam dsanam) where Bho-
jadeva has a fiy-whisk, but his account agrees with that of the Svacchandatantra
as transmitted in Nepalese and Grantha manuscripts. Thus NAK MS 1-224,
f. 48r3: usnisamakutadyams ca cchatrapadukacdmarah | hastyasvasibikadyams
ca rajangani asesatah; and IFI T. 1032, p. 96: usnisamakutadyams ca
chatracdmarapadukah \ hastyasvasibikadyams ca rajangani asesatah. In
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The Saiva Age
(simhasanam) so intimately associated with kingship in the Indian tradition. 612
For a manual for royal initiation, the AmrtesadTksavidhi, instructs the king
to reward his Guru with gifts that should include golden jewellery set with
rubies and pearls, a pair of jewelled sandals, a parasol, two white chowries,
an elephant, and also a golden lion-throne; 613 and the Malkapuram inscription
of A.D. 1261 describes Visvesvarasivacarya sitting on such a throne by virtue
of his office as the Saiva Guru of the Kakatiya king Ganapati of Warangal (r.
1199-1261), 614 decked out in royal splendour, "with his mass of tawny locks
adorned with a diadem trembling [as he speaks], with the full-blown lotus of
his face radiating blessings, with his pearl ear-rings striking the tops of his
shoulders [as he moves his head from side to side], entrancing with his strings
of pearls". 615
Furthermore, according to the prescriptions of the Saiva scriptures the
residence to be built for the Guru by his royal disciple was in many respects
similar in its layout to the royal palace. It included, for example, an arsenal
for the storage of weapons of war. 616 That Gurus should have needed the
Lihgapurdna, Uttarabhdga, 27.259—261 the attributes of kings (nrpacihnani) are
"the conch, the fly-whisk, the drum etc., a moon-white parasol, a palanquin, and the
war-banner" (sahkhacdmarabheryddyam chattram candrasamaprabham | sibikdm
vaijayantim ca sddhayen nrpateh subhdm | rdjydbhisekayuktdya ksatriydyesvardya
vd | nrpacihnani ndnyesdm ksatriydndm vidhiyate).
612 For an image of such a throne see, e.g., the eighth-century metal Tara from Sirpur
(Sripura) in HUNTINGTON 1985, plate 30. The notion that the throne is the very
embodiment of sovereignty and imparts its power to the enthroned is already found
in the Vedic literature, in the Satapathabrdhmana (12.8.3.4) (Gonda 1966: 45-46):
dsandydm abhisincati | dsandl sad vai sdmrdjyam sdmrdjyenaivainam sdmrdjyam
gamayati 'He consecrates him by affusion on the throne. The throne is indeed true
sovereignty. Through [this] sovereignty he causes him to achieve sovereignty'.
613 Amrtesadiksdvidhi f. 16v2— 3: 37 pascdd gurur daksaniyah svarnabhdraih *su-
vistaraih (em. : suvistaraih Cod.) | mdnikyamuktdkhacitair alahkdrais ca
adbhutaih | 38 navaratnamayair ddntais tathd vai ratnapdduke | haimam
simhasanam chattram dattvd vai cdmare subhe | 39 manimuktdsvandgendra-ustra-
mesagavddibhih | ksetragrdmddivisayair mandalais ca subhair varaih 'After that
the Guru should be rewarded with extremely large quantities of gold, with mar-
vellous jewellery set with rubies and pearls, made of the nine jewels, and of ivory,
and, having given him a pair of jewelled sandals, a golden lion-throne, two white
chowries, with jewels, pearls, horse, elephants, camels, rams, cows and the like,
fields, villages and the like, districts, and fine provinces.'
614 Pantulu 1930, v. 38d: tasmin ganapatyadhisagurutdsimhdsanddhydsini srivisve-
svaradesike 'While the Guru Visvesvara[siva], occupies the lion-throne of his office
as Guru of King Ganapati'. Note also the reading chatrapddukam dsanam 'parasol,
sandals, and throne' in the Kashmirian text of Svacchandatantra 4.470.
615 Pantulu 1930, v. 39: tvahgatpihgajatdkiritam udayasmerdravinddnanam muktd-
kundalatdditdmsasikharam hdrair manohdrinam \ vidydmandapavartinam gana-
patiksmdpdladiksdgurum srivisvesvarasambhum Tksitavatdm te caksusi caksusi.
616 Mayasamgraha 5.182ab: dhanuhkhadgasarddini vidadhydt tu grhaksate;
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
means of warfare may surprise. But a fragmentary inscription of the late tenth
century from Kadwaha in the Guna District of Madhya Pradesh relates that
when hostile forces had invaded the region and the king had been slain, the
Saiva ascetic Dharmasiva, abbot of the Aranipadra monastery, went into battle
and routed the enemy through his skill as an archer, at the cost of his own
life. 617 Nor is this an isolated instance. From the Jubbulpore stone inscription
of Vimalasiva, Rajaguru of the Kalacuri kings Jayasimha (r. c. 1163-1188) and
Vijayasimha (r. c. 1188-1210), we learn that the activities of his predecessor
Kirtisiva, Rajaguru of Narasimha (r. 1153-1163), extended beyond the spiritual
to those of a military commander who expanded his monarch's realm and added
to his own through the appropriation of temples in the territories gained. 618
Pihgaldmata f. 71rl-2 (10.28c-31): grhaksate grham caiva sastrasamsthdpandya
tu | khadgabdnadhanus caiva kuthdro mudgaras tatha | cchurikd kuntadamtas ca
citradandas tathaiva ca | lakutam sakti pasas ca kanayah sulapatrakah | cakrdsi
gadavajras ca ahkusas ca kupattisah | evamddydni cdstrdni phardni vividhdni ca \
sthdpitavydni devese grhe grhaksatasya tu. The term grhaksatah here denotes [the
deity of] a segment immediately to the east of its centre of the southern edge of the
square plan. In the last verse I take phara- to be a variant of sphara- 'shield' from
Iranian (Old Persian spara-barai 'shield-bearer'; Persian ispar 'shield').
617 EI 37:20, 11. 10-16. The inscription is fragmentary, but this much of its meaning is
clear: while the ascetic Dharmasiva was in the monastery at Aranipada (elsewhere
called Aranipadra) performing austerities (tendranipadam nama krtampadam ani-
nditam . . . dattvdranipade . . . tasya dharmasiva ity abhavaj jitatma sisyah . . . tasya-
srame vardhayatas tapamsi [11. 10-12]) a ruler called Gobhata came there with a
force of elephants (tatrajagamonmadasindhuranam balena bhupah kila gobhata-
khyah [1. 12]). Someone, perhaps the local ruler, was killed by this king ([nrjpena
paragatasuh sahasa papata [11. 12-13]); and he, evidently Dharmasiva, wept with
compassion for a while when he heard the news (tasyavagamya sa katham karuna-
vimuktabaspah ksanam [1. 13]), then, flying into a rage (tad anu kopavipdtaflaksah]
[1. 13]), went into battle, a veritable Siva on earth, armed with a bow *that had come
[down to him] from Prabhava[siva?] (?) (atha prabhavagatakarmukena banais ca
diptah sa dharavrsdhkah [1. 14]), and, like Siva in his Tripurantaka embodiment,
routed the whole army of the enemy before ascending to the incomparable world
[above] in a shower of flowers scattered by Indra's celestial nymphs (dtta[sva]lilas
tripurdntakasya . . . sakalam api sa jitvd sdtravam sarvakalpah | surapatiramanl-
ndm puspavrstydvakirnah puram anupamfam] ... [1. 15]). The poet refers here to
the reward conventionally attributed to a warrior who dies bravely when fighting to
protect his country; see, e.g., Mahdbhdrata 8, supplementary passage 14, 11. 31-34;
13, supplementary passage 15, 11.1358-1361.
618 EI 25:33 (A.D. 1174), vv. 23—24: na syandanam vasumati na ca candrasuryau cakre
na sdrathir abhut sa ca visyayonih \ nesur harih parapurdni tathdpi bhasma cakre
yatah sa iti kirtisivah sphutam sah \\ yasobhir induvisadais tathaivdrivikarsitaih |
apupurat sa sarvdsd vivekakusumair iva 'He was manifestly [worthy of the name]
Kirtisiva [Temple/Fame-Siva]. For he [was a Siva in as much as he] reduced the
cities of his enemies to ashes [just as Siva did to the cities of the three demons] even
though his war chariot [unlike Siva's] was not the earth, the sun and moon were
not its two wheels, its driver was not Brahma, and his arrow was not Visnu; and he
filled all the directions with the moon-white temples that he had wrested from his
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The Saiva Age
Kings rewarded their Gurus with the donation or construction of monas-
teries (mathah) and with grants of revenue from designated lands with which
they themselves constructed and endowed such institutions. Thus in the first
half of the ninth century the Rajaguru Purandara founded two monasteries
in Gwalior, one at Mattamayura and a second at Aranipadra, using the funds
he had received from king Avantivarman as the daksina for performing the
king's Saiva initiation, for which purpose he had been persuaded to move to
Mattamayura, probably from Malava. The wealth received is described in
the inscription that records these events as "[the revenue of] the most valu-
able portion of his kingdom". 619 Similarly, when the Kalacuri Yuvarajadeva
foes, just as he did with the [white] blossoms of his Vivekas'. My translation finds
a reference to [lost] works by Kirtisiva entitled Viveka, presumably commentaries
on Saiva texts. It is possible that the poet refers not to works but to Klrtisiva's
spiritual insights (vivekah).
619 Ranod inscription, EI 1:41, vv. 10—15: tasmat purandaragurur guruvad garimnah
prajnatirekajanitasya babhuva bhumih | yasyddhunapi vibudhair itikrtyasamsi
vyahanyate na vacanam nayamdrgavidbhih || 11 vandyah ko 'pi cakdsty acintya-
mahimd tulyam munir bhdsvatd rdjann uttamasabdapurvasikhardbhyarnam
prakirnadyutih \ diksarthiti vaco nisamya sukrti cdroktam urvipatir yasyehdna-
yandya yatnam akaroc chriman avantih purd || 12 gatvd tapasyantam upendrapiirve
pure tadd srimadavantivarma | bhrsam samdrddhya tarn atmabhumim kathamcid
anlya cakaraputdm || 13 athopasadydpya ca samyag aisim dlksdm sa dakso guruda-
ksinartham | nivedya yasmai nijarajyasaram svajanmasdphalyam avdpa bhupah ||
14 sa karayam asa samrddhibhajam munir matham sanmuniratnabhumim \prasi-
ddham dvaridhi merukalpam srimatpure mattamayuranamni || 15 punar dvitlyam
svayam advitlyo gunair munlndro 'ranipadrasamjnam | tapovanam sresthamatham
vidhaya presthah pratistham paramam ninaya 'Then came the Guru Purandara,
who as befitted a Guru had the gravity that comes from the highest wisdom, whose
teachings concerning the duties [of Saiva initiates] have still not been surpassed
by scholars learned in the way of discipline, whom the glorious and virtuous king
Avanti[varman] made efforts to bring to this land because he desired to receive
[Saiva] initiation and had heard from one of his agents that there was a certain
holy ascetic in the vicinity of Uttamasikhara shining in unimaginable glory, shed-
ding his radiance like the sun. Avantivarman then went to [Purandara], who was
practising austerities in Upendrapura, and having striven to win his favour suc-
ceeded in bringing him back to sanctify his kingdom. Then, having served him with
devotion he duly received Saiva initiation [from him]. The wise king then presented
him with the best part of the wealth of his kingdom as Guru's fee and so brought
his human birth to fulfilment. In the splendid town of Mattamayura the sage then
caused a richly endowed Meru-like monastery to be built, a treasury of jewel-like
ascetics, the fame of which has reached [throughout the continent] to the oceans.
This foremost of sages, himself unmatched in his virtues, built and richly endowed
a second and most splendid monastery, [this] hermitage of Aranipadra'. I say that
Purandara probably came from Malava because we are told here that before he was
brought to Mattamayura he was in Upendrapura and a grant of 1110 issued by
the Paramara king Naravarman (EI 20:11) refers to the gifting of land in a village
in the district of Upendrapura (1. 5: upendrapuramandale), which must have been
within his kingdom, that is to say, in Malava. It is probable that this town and
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
I alias Keyuravarsa (r. c. 915-945) induced Purandara's spiritual descendant
Prabhavasiva (/Sadbhavasiva) to move to his kingdom in Chattisgarh, he
founded for him at huge expense the great monastery at Golagi, 620 granting him
by royal charter numerous villages and a whole well-populated town, which,
since it is not named, was probably Golagi itself, 621 or, according to the account
district bore the name of Upendra, the first of the Paramara kings according to the
genealogy given by the poet Padmagupta in 11.76 of his Navasahasahkacarita.
620 In all secondary sources, including SANDERSON 2007a (p. 274), the name of this
monastery (mathah) appears as Golaki-. That spelling is well attested, but only in
manuscripts and inscriptions from the Dravidian South, where the scribes, speak-
ing languages in which voiced and unvoiced consonants are not distinguished, are
liable to substitute k for g. We also find kolaki there. I now correct to Golagi- be-
cause this is what I find in the earliest testimony, which comes from regions whose
vernacular languages do distinguish these consonants, namely Nepalese palm-leaf
manuscripts of the Kriyakdndakramavali and the Bangarh Prasasti of the time
of Nayapala (r.c. 1027-1043) (SlRCAR 1983b, v. 6: golagyas sa mahamathah). The
name appears as Golaggi in the Chandrehe inscription (caranaputagolaggikah). I
identify Golagi with modern Gurgi (244° 31' N, 81° 27' E), about 12 miles due east of
Rewa Town, in the north of the Kalacuri kingdom. This is the site of once vast Saiva
ruins (Cunningham 1885, pp. 149-154; Meyer et al. 1908-1931, vol. 21, pp. 282-
283; Banerji 1931, pp. 41-45). A full account of my reasons for proposing this
location and for rejecting as groundless the widespread view that the monastery
was in the south of the kingdom at Bheraghat on the Narmada river, close to the
Kalacuri capital Tripuri, must be set out elsewhere.
621 Chandrehe inscription, CII 4i:44, v. 5: tato madhumatlpateh krtamahatapah-
samcayah prabhavasiva ity abhut sakalasaivacudamanih | anekanrpavanditah sa
yuvarajadevena yas tapodhanapatih krtas caranaputa*golaggikah (my reading :
golagnikah MlRASHl, Banerji [EI 21:23]) 'Then after the abbot of Madhumati
came that crest-jewel of all the Saivas called Prabhavasiva, who had accumulated
vast power through his asceticism and was revered by many kings. He purified
Golaggi [=GolagI] with his feet after being appointed by Yuvarajadeva as overlord
of the ascetics [of the monastery at that placel'; and the Gurgi inscription, EI
22:21, vv. 6—7: tasyakhilaksitipatipranatottamahgacudamanidyuticayarcitapada-
pithah | sisyo babhuva bhuvanatrayakirtaniyah srimatprabhavasivanamamunir
manlsi || anlya yam sahajavasanaya nayajhah srimugdhatuhgatanayo yuvaraja-
deva}} | sattvopakarabhavaduttamakirtihetor agrahayan matham anantadhana-
pratistham 'His disciple was the glorious and learned ascetic Prabhavasiva, wor-
thy of celebration throughout the three worlds, the pedestal beneath whose feet
was honoured by the dense rays of the crest-jewels on the heads of all the kings who
prostrated themselves before him. Yuvarajadeva, the son of Mugdhatunga, skilled
in policy, brought [him to his kingdom prompted] by an inborn predisposition and
had him accept a monastery that he established [for him] with infinite wealth'. The
damaged vv. 35-40 at the end of this inscription list the places that the king made
over to Prabhavasiva: [sthanam] . - . . . - . ya kirtanifyam] punyanvitaya mu-
naye svayam arcitaya | - - nam ullikhitafsasana - . - - keyu]avarsanrpatih [svayam
ajahara] \\ 36pakk + + . - - [tarn?] tatha sarasadollakam | vakkadollakarajyauddhe
ko + +[na]sapundika || 37 + + + + . — \- + +puram khatollika \ . nakalabhirapalli + +
+ + sarasvatl || 38 [etesam] dvadasakah ca kavacaksetram eva ca | sdmantapatakas
caiva vata + + . - . + || 39 + + + yaftallapatT] sasanam [sajtram ity api | sa + + bhad-
dhaci[u]ra [kusu?]mva ca ku[kku]diya || 40 rajogrdmanvitafn etan sajsanatvena dat-
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The Saiva Age
of the Malkapuram inscription, gave him a vast reward which that ascetic,
after he had himself founded the monastery, transferred to it as its endow-
ment. 622 In the next generation the Kalacuri Laksmanaraja II (r. c. 945-970)
brought in Hrdayasiva and gave him the monasteries attached to the temples of
Vaidyanatha and Nohalesvara, the second of which Hrdayasiva passed on to his
disciple Aghorasiva; 623 and the Bangarh Prasasti reports, as we have seen, that
tavdfn] | + + + + . [siddhdjntapdragdya gariyase || puram paurajandkirnam + + + +
samastakam | bhaktyd samarpaydm dsa sdsanatvefna bhuipatih.
622 Pantulu 1930, vv. 25c-26: tasmai nihsprhacetase galacuriksmdpdlacuddmanir
grdmdndm yuvardjadevanrpatir bhiksam trilaksim dadau || 26 krtvd
sa saivamunir adbhutasilamurtih srigolakimatham uddram uddttacittah \
[tajsydkarasya nrpadesikamauktikdndm vrttim cakdra sakaldm api tarn trilaksim
'To that [ascetic] whose mind was free of all craving the king Yuvarajadeva, that
crest-jewel among the Kalacuri monarchs, gave a 300,000 endowment of villages.
That Saiva ascetic, the noble-minded embodiment of extraordinary good conduct,
built the great Golaki [Golagi] monastery [there] and then made over the whole of
that 300,000 living to that [monastery, which, ocean-like, has become] the source
of [many] pearls in the form of Rajagurus'. MlRASHl (CII 4i, p. clviii) interprets
the words grdmdndm bhiksam trilaksim 'a 300,000 endowment of villages' to
mean that 300,000 villages were given to Prabhavasiva and points out that if the
report is correct it indicates that "the king assigned to him one third of the total
revenue of his home province of Dahala, which, according to tradition, comprised
nine lakhs of villages". This would indeed be a vast endowment, so vast indeed
that I find it hard to accept his interpretation. The Gurgi inscription mentions
only about twenty villages and a town and the Malkapuram inscription need
mean only that the endowment [consisting of the revenue capacity of these places]
was valued at 300,000 of some unspecified monetary unit. This alternative was
already considered by Pantulu, the first editor of the Malkapuram inscription.
For though he proposed the interpretation later adopted by Mirashi, he saw the
difficulty it entails (1930, p. 52): "The founder of the monastery was one Sadbhava
Sambhu who obtained a gift of three lacks [sic] of villages (or was it a villages [sic]
fetching an income ofNishkas (coins)?) from the Kalachuri king Yuvarajadeva and
gave away those villages to the Matha as an endowment". In favour of this more
realistic reading is a parallel expression seen in an inscription of the sixth century
from a site near Mrohaung in Arakan. There we learn of the gift to a Buddhist
monastery of a trisdhasriko grdmah {EI 37:13, 1. 13: dehguttandmd ttrisdhasriko
grdmo nisrsto), which can only mean 'a village which has [a revenue yield of] 3000'.
As the editor, D.C. Sircar points out (p. 63), this refers "apparently to the revenue
income in the standard coin".
623 Bilhari inscription, EI 1:31, vv. 56-58: 56 kim stuyate 'sau munipuhgavo 'thavd
sricedicandro nrpatih krtddarah | sadvrttadutaprahitair updyanaih pradarsya
bhaktim vidhindnindya yam \\ 57 srimallaksmanardjo 'pi tasmai sutapase svayam \
matham srivaidyandthasya bhaktiyuktah samdrpayat \\ 58 svikrtydpi munir bhuyo
matham srinauhalesvaram \ aghorasivasisyasya sddhuvrttasya dattavdn 'Or rather
why should I praise that foremost among ascetics? [It suffices to report that] king
Laksmanaraja, the moon of the Cedi dynasty, brought him [to his kingdom] after
earnestly showing his devotion to him through presents sent by virtuous envoys,
and then out of his devotion freely bestowed on that [saint] of great austerity the
monastery of Vaidyanatha. The ascetic also accepted the monastery of Nohalesvara
and then gave it to his virtuous disciple Aghorasiva'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the Pala emperor Mahipala I (r. c. 977-1027) bestowed a lofty gilded monastery
on the Guru Indrasiva at Sivavati near Kotivarsa. 624
Moreover, we have several records of Gurus using their resources in-
dependently to establish further monasteries. Thus Prabhavasiva's disciple
Prasantasiva built a monastery at Chandrehe for ascetics devoted to med-
itation 625 and a hermitage on the banks of the Ganges at Benares. 626 His
disciple, the Rajaguru Prabodhasiva, also built a monastery at Chandrehe; 627
624 Bangarh inscription, SlRCAR 1983b, v. 9: srlman indrasivah sphutam hari-
haraprayam sivendrakrtim bibhrad vamsavibhusanam samabhavac chisyo 'sya
punyatmanah \ yasmai kancanapunjamanjuracitaprasadamerusphuratkailasabha-
matham daddv iha mahipdlo nrpas tattvavit 'The disciple of that [Guru] devoted to
piety was the illustrious Indrasiva, an ornament of his lineage, who did indeed have
an appearance [matching his name, in that it was one] that embodied both Siva and
Indra [=Upendra, i.e. Visnu] as though it were an image of Harihara [in which
Siva is both himself and Visnu in a single body]. To him king Mahipala, [once he
had become through initiation] a knower of [ultimate] reality, gave in this place a
monastery that resembled Mt. Kailasa, radiant with its Meru-like towers beauti-
fully wrought with much gold'.
625 Chandrehe inscription, CII 4i:44, vv. 6a, 7: prasantasivacandramds tad anu tasya
sisyo 'bhavat ... 7 sa sonanadasamgame bhramarasailamule 'tulam priyalavana-
samkule phalamrnalakandasanah | cakdra viditam janair munisakhah prasanta-
sramam svapadapadapahktibhih pavitabhutalo yah krti 'The successor of [Prabha-
vasiva] was his disciple, the moon-like Prasantasiva. . . . Eating [nothing but] fruits,
lotus stems, and bulbs, that wise friend of ascetics built the famous hermitage with
his name [the Prasantasrama] at the foot, thick with a forest of Priyala trees, of the
Bhramara hill, at the confluence of the river Son, purifying the earth with the lines
of his foot-prints'; and the Gurgi inscription, EI 22:21, vv. 8 and 13: tasydmalena
tapasa ca vivardhamanavidyabalena ca samastajagatpratitah | sisyah prakama-
kamaniyagunaikadhama srimatprasantasivandmamunir babhuva \\ ... 13 dahotti-
rnasuvarnadanasamitadravyarthisarthasprhah siddhasthanam acikarat tad apa-
ram yah sonatlropari | yasmin yogajusah pravisya niyamadhvastdntarayadhayah
santah siddhasamadhayo 'cchamatayo gacchanti mukteh padam 'The disciple of
this [Prabhavasiva] was the ascetic Prasantasiva, who was known to all for his
unblemished austerity and the power of his ever growing knowledge, the unique
abode of the most desirable of qualities. . . . [13:] He, who quenched the desire of a
multitude of people in need of funds with fire-refined gold, built another [monastery
as] a seat of Siddhas on the bank of the river Son, where masters of Yoga enter, abol-
ish the torment of [all] hindrances through their ascetic restraint, and, when they
are at peace, having achieved perfect concentration, reach with pure awareness the
goal of liberation'.
626 Gurgi inscription, EI 22:21, v. 14: tlrthasnananisevanodyatadhiyam atyan-
tavisrantaye yas tat karitavan munih surasarittire tapahsthdnakam | yat samsevya
mahesvararcanaratd varanaswasino manyante bhavasagaram gurum api ksinam
yatha [gospajdam 'That ascetic had a hermitage built on the bank of the Ganges for
the complete repose of those whose minds were devoted to the practice of bathing
at its Tirthas. By resorting to it those living in Benares who are devoted to the
worship of Siva consider the ocean of transmigratory existence, vast though it is, to
have dwindled into a mere puddle'.
627 Chandrehe inscription, CII 4i:44, v. 16ab: gurukrtasuragarad arad amum matham
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The Saiva Age
Patarigasiva, a spiritual descendant of Purandara through another line,
built a monastery in Gwalior at a site now unknown; 628 and the Rajaguru
Visvesvarasiva, after receiving a village in Andhra from the Kakatiya Queen
Rudradevi, built a monastery there and renamed the village Visvesvaragolaki
after both himself and the original home of his preceptorial lineage in Chat-
tisgarh, dictating that only a Guru of this lineage, one consecrated by another
Guru of the same (golakivamsyakrtabhisekah), should be allowed to preside over
his foundation. 629 According to the same source he also established monasteries
in Kalisvarapura, Mandrakutanagara (v. 82), and Isvarapura (v. 85), no doubt
under the same conditions.
In this way there developed a far-reaching network of interconnected seats
of Saiddhantika Saiva learning. Figures at the summit of this clerical hierarchy
thus came to exercize a transregional authority whose geographical extent could
be greater than that of any contemporary king. Visvesvarasiva while holding of-
fice as the Rajaguru of the Kakatiya Ganapati is said also to have been the Guru
of the Kalacuri king, the Cola king, and the king of Malava; 630 and praise of Saiva
unnatam svakam iva yasah subhrabhrabham visalam acikarat 'Near the temple
built by his teacher he built this broad and lofty monastery that resembles a white
cloud, as though it were his own fame'.
628 Gwalior Museum inscription, MlRASHl 1962, v. 40: matham devakulam kupas
tadaganam ca pahcakam | pra[ka]ro vatika ... 'A monastery, a temple, wells, five
reservoirs, a circumvallation, *an orchard (?)
629 Malkapuram inscription, Pantulu 1930, w. 42-45 and v. 70: 69c-72:
devasya sattrasya mathasya tasya gramasya sarvasya ca so 'dhikari || 70 yo
golakivamsyakrtabhisekah santah sucih saivarahasyavedi \ saivagamanam
api paragami samtanapalah samalostahema || 71 sarvani bhutany anukam-
pamanah samastavidya.su krtavagahah | mahisurah silavatam purogo bhavettaram
naisthikadesikendrah | 72 visvesvarasivacaryo dhiman rajaguruh svayam evam
ajnapayad dhirah saiv deary asatair vrtah 'Surrounded by hundreds of Saivacaryas
the learned and noble Visvesvasivacarya personally ordered that the superinten-
dent of the [temple of the] god [Visvesvara], the refectory, the monastery, and the
whole settlement [that he had established] could only be an ascetic Guru whose
consecration [to office] had been performed by [a Guru] of the lineage of Golagi, a
brahmin outstanding among the virtuous, tranquil, honest, one who understands
the esoteric doctrines taught by Siva, who has mastered the Saiva scriptures, a
guardian of his initiatory line, for whom a clod of earth and gold are of equal value,
compassionate to all living beings, and deeply versed in all branches of learning'.
630 Malkapuram inscription, Pantulu 1930, v. 38: sricolesvaramalavaksitipati
rajanyacudamani yacchisyau kim atah param ganapatiksonipatir yatsutah\na
sydt kasya made sa desikavarah saivagamambhonidhih srivisvesvaradesikah
kalacuriksmapaladiksaguruh 'The Cola king and the king of Malava, the crest-
jewels among rulers, were his disciples. King Ganapati too was his [spiritual] son.
Whom does this excellent Guru not delight? The Guru Visvesvara, this ocean of
[knowledge of] the Saiva scriptures, was the Guru that [also] initiated the Kalacuri
king'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Gurus as venerated by a plurality of kings is common, even a commonplace. 631
The wealth accumulated by these Gurus enabled them behave like royal
patrons themselves, not only founding new monasteries but also bestowing land-
grants on brahmins, rewarding poets, founding temples and new settlements,
and providing the means of irrigation. The Badaun inscription reports that
the Rajaguru Murtigana "honoured brahmins in abundance with many gifts
of land that he had received due to the devotion of his royal disciple"; 632 the
Malkapuram inscription says concerning the Rajaguru Visvesvarasiva, a na-
tive of Gauda in eastern India: "Who can count the Gauda [brahmins] whose
wishes he has granted, the ascetics who have received rich endowments [from
him], the leading poets who have been delighted [with the rewards he has be-
stowed]?"; 633 and the Bangarh Prasasti relates that Sarvasiva, the Rajaguru of
the Pala Nayapala, gave [to brahmins] all the Great Gifts (mahdddndni) of the
Puranic tradition, including the tulapurusadanam in which the donor gives away
his weight in gold, an activity that increasingly became emblematic of exemplary
kings during the second half of the first millenium. 634 His brother Murtisiva, to
631 See, for example, in the colophonic verses of the Prdyascittasamuccaya of
Hrdayasiva, concerning his Guru Isvarasiva (see Sanderson 2001, p. 3): asit
tatsamtatau munih sri-lsvarasiva iti | jagatlpatibhir nrpaih pujitapddapahkajah;
Chandrehe inscription (CII 4i:44), v. 4b, concerning Purandara: yatra puranda-
rah krtatapd jajne gurur bhubhujdm; v. 5c, concerning Prabhavasiva: anekanrpa-
vanditah; Bilhari inscription (CII 4i:45), v. 50b, concerning Dharmasiva: bhupd-
lamaulimanikdntibhir arcitdnghrih; v. 51bcd, concerning Sadasiva: nrpaih \ yat-
pddadvayam vandyam arcitam sekhardmsubhih; v. 54cd, concerning Hrdayasiva:
nrpamukutanivistair yasya mdnikyacakrair akrta caranamulam kantam ekdntava-
ndyam; Gurgi inscription (CII 4i:46), v. 6, concerning Prabhavasiva: tasyakhilaksiti-
patipranatottamdhgacudamanidyuticaydrcitapddapithah | sisyo babhuva bhuvana-
trayakirtaniyah srimatprabhavasivanamamunir manisi; and v. 17cd, concerning
Isanasiva: srisdnasambhur akhilavanipalamaulimdldmanidyutipisahgitapddapa-
dmah.
632 Badaun inscription, EI 1:10, 1. 15: svasisyavarabhupdlabhaktilabdhena bhurind |
bhumiddnena yo viprdn pujaydm dsa bhurind.
633 Pantulu 1930, v. 39ab: gauddh purnamanorathdh kati kati prdptasriyas tdpasdh
samtustdh kavipumgavdh kati kati pradhvastapdsd nrpdh.
634 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 11. The inscription lists prthividdnam , meruddnam, visvacakra-
ddnam, [sapta]sdgaraddnam, brahmdndaddnam, kalpavrksaddnam, [hiranyajkd-
madhenuddnam, bhavanaddnam, grdmaddnam, goddnam, parvatdndm ddnam
(the ten parvataddndni of the Matsyapurdna, with Meru in the centre), sakalpa-
drumabhadraghataddnam, hiranydsva[ratha]ddnam, hiranyahasti[ratha]ddnam,
hiranyagarbhaddnam, asvaddnam, tulapurusadanam, and srinandisvaraddnam.
For an exhaustive presentation of the prescriptions of the Puranic and other sources
on the "Great Gifts" see especially the fifth Adhydya of the Ddnakhanda of the
Caturvargacintdmani of Hemadri, written while he was a minister of Mahadeva,
the Yadava king of Devagiri (r. c. 1260-1270). The srinandisvaraddnam mentioned
in this inscription is, I presume, the gift of a golden image of Nandikesvara that is
to accompany the gift of a thousand cows (Caturvargacintdmani, vol. 1, p. 253). On
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The Saiva Age
whom he handed over his office as Rajaguru is likewise praised in that inscrip-
tion for his abundant donations to brahmins. 635 Sarvasiva's disciple Rupasiva is
also praised there for his generosity to supplicants, 636 as is Isanasiva, the disciple
of Prasantasiva, in the Gurgi inscription. 637 The predecessors of the Rajaguru Vi-
malasiva receive similar praise for their pious largesse in that Guru's Jubbulpore
inscription, and Vimalasiva himself is commended there for the support he gave
to the brahmanical order by bestowing gifts on brahmins, and adorning the land
with gardens, water-tanks, charitable feeding-houses (sattrani), temples, and
houses for brahmins. 638 In the Bangarh Prasasti Vidyasiva and Dharmasiva are
the drift away during our period from the sponsoring of Vedic (Srauta) sacrifices to
the bestowing of the Great Gifts such as the tulapurusaddnam see DlRKS 1976.
635 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 15cd: bhratd murtisivah sa mdnyamahimo ddnambusekair jagat
putam yah krtavdn . . . 'His brother Murtisiva, of venerable glory, washed the world
clean with the water he poured when making donations'. The poet refers to the rite
of pouring water on to the hand of the brahmin recipient, or, in his absence, on to
the ground, that must accompany any formal act of donation (Caturvargacintdmani,
vol. 1, p. 92); and by saying that he cleansed the world with these libations he sug-
gests that his donations to brahmins were frequent, widespread, and very numer-
ous.
636 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 28: sisyah sarvasivasya diptatapasah sarvdrthicintdmanir . . . |
srimdn riipasivo babhuva 'The disciple who succeeded Sarvasiva, [that Guru] of
blazing ascetic power, was the illustrious Rupasiva, who was a wishing-granting
jewel for all supplicants'.
637 EI 22:21, v. 18ab: . . . \sarvdrthi\ndm yena srlr gamitopabhogapadavlm
daurgatyaduhkhacchidd 'He caused [his] wealth to be enjoyed by all suppli-
cants, thus ending the torment of their poverty'.
638 EI 25:33. The inscription precedes its account of the life of Vimalasiva with some in-
formation about the predecessors in his Guru lineage. Unfortunately the section on
his predecessors is lacunose because of damage to the stone, with the loss or partial
loss of some of these Gurus' names. The inscription yields the following succes-
sion: . . . N > Vimalasiva > Astrasiva — in 11. 5-6 I read ... (1. 6) vdstrasivdbhidhanah
where the editor, MlRASHl, reads ...(1.6) vdstusivdbhidhanah: Astrasiva is a
Saiddhantika initiation name but *Vastusiva is not — > N? (if Astrasiva's succes-
sor was covered in the lost v. 11) > N-siva (the first part of the name has been
lost: . . .sivah sisyah in 1. 6) . . .N > Purusasiva, Guru of Yasahkarna (r. 1073-1123)
> Saktisiva, Guru of Yasahkarna's successor Gayakarna (r. 1123-1153) Klrtisiva,
Guru of Gayakarna's successor Narasimha (r. A.D. 1153-1163) > Vimalasiva, Guru
of Narasimha's successors Jayasimha (r. 1153-1188) and, on the evidence of EI
40:46, Vijayasimha (r. 1188-1210). Of N-siva we are told (v. 11): + sivah sisyah
purusarthdya sampadam | gunandm ca dhanandm ca paropakrtaye param '[His]
disciple N-siva [employed] his abundant virtues only for the accomplishment of
the goal of human existence and his abundant wealth only for the welfare of
others'; and of his now nameless successor we learn ... (v. 15) pritih pdtre ratis
tirthe sthitih pathi mate satam | bhaktis bhave 'bhavat tasya samasya 'That as-
cetic's only delight was in [giving to] worthy recipients, his only attachment was
to holy sites, his only adherence was to the path approved by the good, and
his only devotion was to Siva'. Of Vimalasiva we learn in v. 34cd: [yacchdjydm
vibudhagano 'dhigamya dhatte vaidhuryam na khalu [mahotsajvodayesu 'Enter-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
praised for building temples, 639 and the Rajaguru Murtisiva for building many 640
and excavating numerous reservoirs. 641 In the Gurgi inscription Prasantasiva is
said to have added a lofty temple of Siva at Golagi to the north of one that had
been established there by king Yuvarajadeva; 642 and in the Chandrehe inscrip-
tion his successor Prabodhasiva is said to have provided that place not only with
a monastery but also with a water reservoir and a well. 643 The Gwalior Mu-
ing the shade [provided by the parasol] of this [patron] a multitude of brahmins
was freed from the distress [of penury] on the splendid occasions of major festi-
vals'; in v. 38: yasydrthidvijardjadarsanavasdd ddndmbufbhir vardhate] sraddha
[rdtridivam] varena vidhind dharmasya *tantrlr (?) iva | yo darsesv api sadaram
dvijapatin aksinasobhdbhardn dakso yojayate suvarnavikasatsadrohinindm sataih
'At the sight of great brahmin supplicants his faith grows day and night along with
the [frequency with which he does] the pouring of the water of donation, in accor-
dance with the best procedure, like a * ... (?) of religious duty. And on the days
of the new moon [this] learned [Guru] bestows with devotion on the leading brah-
mins, their rich adornments never diminished, hundreds of fine ruddy cows shining
with gold [adorning their horns]'; v. 41bc: [dattam] na yan ndsti tat | pdtram tan na
yad arcitam 'there is no gift that he did not give, no worthy recipient whom he did
not honour'; and v. 43: udydnasarasi[sattra]prdsddadvijavesmabhih | bhumih parib-
havaty asya na kair bhusdbharair divam 'With what rich adornments [created by
him], with gardens, reservoirs, charitable feeding-houses, temples, and houses for
brahmins, did [this] land not surpass heaven?'
639 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 8ab: sisyo dharmasivas taponidhir abhut tasya vyadhdd yo
'dbhutam prasadam bhagavattrilocanaguror vdrdnasibhusanam 'His disciple, the
ascetic Dharmasiva, built a marvellous temple of the blessed three-eyed teacher
[of the world] that beautified Benares'; Sircar 1983b, v. 7cd: srividydsiva
ity asimacaritas satkirtisdkhdsataprdgbhdrasthagitdmbaro munir abhut tasmdd
yathdrthdnvayah 'After him came Vidyasiva, an ascetic of boundless virtuous con-
duct, in whom the lineage fulfilled its purpose, who concealed the sky with the mass
of the countless branches of his fine temples'; vv. 16-19.
640 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 19: mahiyasiyam na tathd mahi yathd tapasvinas tasya mahdn
ihdsayah | tathd hi bhumih kila kirtibhir bhrtd gato na tasydsaya esa vismayah
'This land though vast was not large enough for the ambition of this ascetic. The
wonder is that it did not cease even when the earth was filled to capacity by his
temples'.
641 SlRCAR 1983b, v. 17ab: ...nirmitds citram diksu vidiksu yena prthivihdra*sriyo
(conj. sriyd Ep.) dirghikdh 'Wondrously he created reservoirs in all directions as
a beautiful garland to adorn the land'.
642 Gurgi inscription, EI 22:21, v. 11: yena sriyuvardjakdritalasatkaildsasrhgopama-
prdsddottaratah sumerusikharaspardhi prasiddhafm bhujvi \ sadma sthdpitam
isvarasya *sakalatrailokyavismdpakam (trailokya corr. MlRASHl : traildkya Ep.)
yat svargam vrajatas tadlyayasasah sopdnamdrgdyate 'To the north of the temple
built by Yuvaraja that resembled the shining peak of Mt. Meru he built his famous
temple of Siva. That [too] rivals the peak of Meru, causing wonder throughout the
three worlds, a flight of steps, as it were, for his fame as it ascends to heaven'. The
repetition of the comparison with Mt. Kailasa seems lame, but its probable point is
that the Guru's temple was no less impressive than the king's.
643 Chandrehe inscription, CII 4i:44, v. 16cd: anugiram atho sindhuprakhyam taddgam
acikhanat pracurasalilam kupam cdtra prabodhasivah sami 'Then here [after
building the monastery] the ascetic Prabodhasiva excavated an ocean-like reservoir
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The Saiva Age
seum inscription records that Patarigasiva built a great temple of Siva 644 and
excavated four huge reservoirs. 645 The Jubbulpore inscription records that the
Rajaguru Vimalasiva built a temple of Siva Kirtisvara in honour of his preceptor
and predecessor, the Rajaguru Kirtisiva. 646 A Kannada inscription recording the
death in 931 of the Saiva Guru Tribhuvanakartaradeva alias Kaliyugarudra tells
us that during the forty years of his rule as the pontiff of Avani in Nolambavadi
he built fifty temples and two large water reservoirs; 647 and the Malkapuram in-
scription records that the Rajaguru Visvesvara founded temples to house Sivas
bearing his own name in Visvesvaragolaki, Mandrakutanagara, Candravallina-
gara, Visvesvaranagara, Kommurgrama, and Uttarasomasila, and also that he
founded a town with his own name (Visvesvarapura) at Ananda. 648
The exalted status and king-like behaviour of these Gurus is reflected in the
fact that we have inscriptions in which they have been given royal, even impe-
rial titles. This is so with Vamadeva, also called Vamasambhu, the Rajaguru of
a Kalacuri of Tripuri who was probably Garigeyadeva (r. c. 1015-1041), on whom
that king is said to have transferred his status as the monarch {nijarajalaksmi)
as payment for his service as his Guru (gurudaksina) when he set out on a cam-
near the [Bhramara] hill and a well with abundant water'.
644 MlRASHl 1962, v. 29: tenedam haramandiram susikharam yat sarvatah sundaram
bhaktyd kdritam indudhamadhavalam kaildsdsailopamam | dkalpam sthiram
astu tad bhuvi satdm dnandadam darsandd asyaivdmalam dgamat parinatim
prdsddamurtyd yasah 'Out of devotion he had this temple of Siva built with its
fine towers, altogether beautiful, white as the light of the moon, resembling Mt.
Kailasa. May it endure on earth to the end of the aeon, delighting the virtuous
when they see it. His spotless fame has been transformed to take material form as
[this] temple'.
645 MlRASHl 1962, vv. (30— )38: sutatam catustayam idam ruciram cirabhusanam
mahlvadhvdh | vikatatarataddgdndm acikarac chrlpatahgesah 'Patahgasiva made
these four lovely and immense reservoirs with beautiful banks as an enduring or-
nament for the woman that is the earth'.
646 EI 25:33, vv. 45-46: [a]cikarac candramauler mandiram ddardt | guror
kirtisivasyaitat kirtaye sukrtdya ca || devdya kirtisvarasamjnitdya prdddd amusmai
jayasimhadevah | bibhrad bhave bhaktibharam gurau ca grdmdn raveh parvani n
+ ddydn 'He built out of reverence this temple of Siva for the fame and religious
merit of the Guru Kirtisiva. The god [installed in it] was named Kirtisvara; and
King Jayasimha, having great devotion both to Siva and [his] Guru, gave it [three]
villages as * ... (?) gifts on the sacred day of the sun['s eclipse]'.
647 EC 10, Mb:65: svasti srimad-dvanyada sthdnamam ndlvattu-varsaman did ayva-
ttu-degulam mddi piriyav-eradu-kereya katti saka-varsam entu-nur-embatta-mur
ddand utkrdnti geydu srltribhuvanakarttara-devam kali-yuga-rudrdhka rudra-lo-
ka-prdptan ddam 'Hail! After governing the sacred domain of Avani for forty years
and building fifty temples and two large reservoirs, in the Saka year 853 [the soul
of] Tribhuvanakartaradeva alias Kaliyugarudra has ascended [from his body] and
reached the world of Rudra'.
648 p ANTULU i93o ; vv. 82-84, 88.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
paign of world conquest. Beginning with the inscriptions of his son and succes-
sor Karna (r. c. 1041-1071) the Kalacuri rulers of this kingdom are described as
meditating on the feet of this Vamadeva, to whose name are prefixed the impe-
rial epithets paramabhattarakamaharajadhirajaparamesvaraparamamahesva-
rasrl-. A variant of these titles, samadhigatapaficamahasabdaparamabhatta-
rakamaharajadhirajaparamesvara-, is found in Nolambavadi records attached
to the names of two other Saiddhantika Gurus, namely Brahmasiva in an in-
scription of c. 870 and Varunasiva in one of 936. Similarly, but more modestly,
an inscription of 1331 on a step-well in the vicinity of the Acalesvara temple
on Mt. Abu tells us that it was constructed during the victorious reign of the
great ascetic rajasri- Sarvesvara during the victorious reign of the ruler rajasri-
Tejahsimha of Candravati. 649
(ill)
For these imperial and royal titles attached to the names of Saiva Gurus see D.C.
Sircar in EI 30:10, pp. 46-51. There he refutes the claims expressed by V.V. Mi-
rashi in EI 27:29. These are (1) that Vamadeva is a king Vamarajadeva [seen by
him alonel in the Saugor inscription of Sankaragana, which has been assigned on
palaeographic grounds to the eight century, (2) that this king should be assigned
to the second half of the seventh century, and (3) that the references in inscrip-
tions of the later Kalacuris to these king's devotion to [the memory] of Vamadeva,
should be referred to this much earlier monarch as the founder of their dynasty.
Sircar removes Vamadeva from the Saugor inscription, reading -vdvardja- rather
than -vdmardja- and citing other examples of vdva- or bdva- in inscriptions, and
then cites these examples of imperial or royal epithets bestowed on Saiva Gurus to
counter Mirashi's argument that their being prefixed to the name of Vamadeva
proves that he was a king not a Guru. I side with SlRCAR. His view has the
great strength that it accords (1) with the testimony of the Malkapuram inscription
of 1261/2, which, referring to Vamasambhu as the third Guru in succession after
Sadbhavasambhu, the first pontiff of the Matha at Golagi, reports that the Kalacuri
kings were being praised (prasamsyante) [in their Prasastis] up to the present as
worshippers of his feet (Pantulu 1930, v. 28: atha nrpasekharamdldldlitapddo
'tra vdmasambhur abhut | adydpi kalacurisd yaccarandrddhakdh prasamsyante) —
in the inscriptions of the Kalacuris of Tripuri from Karna onwards they are said
to be -vdmadevapdddnudhydta — , (2) with the fact that there is no reference to
a king Vamadeva in any of the inscriptions of those kings, and (3) with the fact
that the source which reports the Kalacuri king's bestowing his rdjalaksmi on
Vamadeva refers to the latter as an ascetic (sdhasikas tapasvine vdmadevandmne
nijardjalaksmlm gurudaksindyai dattvd sarvdm bhumim jetum prasthitavdn). SlR-
CAR convincingly identifies the Kalacuri king here called Sahasika as Garigeyadeva
on the grounds that the latter was both an illustrious conqueror and known as
Sahasarika 'he who has the cognomen Sahasa'. This source, cited by Sircar (EI
30:10, p. 50), is a paraphrase in Jonaraja's commentary on the Prthivirdjavijaya of
Jayanaka of a verse of that work now lost in a lacuna.
The inscription referring to Brahmasiva is EC 10, Srlnivasapura taluk,
no. 27 (p. 346). SlRCAR {EI 30:10, p. 49) wrongly gives the name
as Bhramarasiva and the page reference as 376. The relevant part
of the inscription is: svasti samadhigatapancamahdsabda pallavdnvaya
sriprthivivallava pallavdnvayakulatilakam srimat-nolambddhirdjar prthivirdjya
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The Saiva Age
Clearly the Saiva Rajaguru had become a far grander figure than the king's
brahmanical chaplain, the Rajapurohita, who was tied to the service of a single
king and was unambiguously his subordinate. Yet, it appears that the Saivas did
not rest with this but also sought to encroach on the territory of that lesser office.
For the Netratantra shows the existence of a further class of Saiva officiants who
were to function in almost all the areas traditionally reserved for that officiant:
the performance of the king's recurrent duties to worship the various deities
on the days assigned to them, to celebrate the major annual royal festivals of
the Indrotsava and Mahanavami, to protect the royal family through rites to
ward off ills, to restore them to health after illness, to ward off or counter the
assaults of dangerous supernaturals, to empower through lustration (nirajanam)
the king's elephants, horses and weapons of war, and to protect the king with
apotropaic rites before he eats, sleeps, and engages in his regular practice of
martial skills. 650
We see here one of several instances in which the Saivas used their author-
ity to colonize downwards, producing modifications of their ritual procedures for
this purpose. These adapations inevitably entailed loss of status for those that
implemented them, but we should understand that this did not affect those at
the summit of the clerical hierarchy, the king-like Rajagurus, but only the hum-
bler clones that extended their authority into domains that those Gurus would
not deign to enter.
geye svasti samadhigatapahcamahasabda paramabhatta[ra]ka mahardja.dhira.ja
paramesvara ataniya mata . . pana
nvita sivasastratapovananuraga sripadhivalagramavirnirggata bha-
gavatpadaikasarana srlmat-brahmasivacaryyan. The inscription referring to
Varunasiva (Vanmasivabhatara) is SII 9, 1:24 (ARE 759 of 1916) from Gu-
nimorabagalu in the Anantapur District. It speaks of him as the pon-
tiff of the Nonambesvarara temple, as the ruler of Palivalubalu, and as the
Mahasamantadhipati, that is to say, as a feudatory of the highest rank, of king
Biranolamba Annayyadeva of the Nolamba-Pallava dynasty (= Anniga, r. c. 932-
940). The Nonambesvarara is probably the imposing temple at Hemavati now
known as Doddesvara (Cohen 1989, p. 50, and p. 63, note 36). He is also men-
tioned in an inscription on the Mandapa of the Doddesvara temple, which gives
the information that he was the disciple of Rudrasivacarya. On Varunasiva see
Cohen 1998, pp. 24, 35, and 41-42, who plausibly concludes that he was Anniga's
Rajaguru. The initiation-names Brahmasiva, Varunasiva, and Rudrasiva reveal
that these Gurus were Saiddhantikas. The relevant portion of the inscription from
Mt. Abu has been published by Sircar within this discussion (EI 30:10, p. 48).
650 rp^g p ur p 0ge; d a te, and provenance of the Netratantra are the subject of SANDER-
SON 2005b.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Saivism and the Royal Temple
The second element of the early medieval process to which I have drawn
attention is the proliferation of land-owning temples. All but the most ephemeral
sovereigns during this period, both in the subcontinent and in Southeast Asia,
gave material form to the legitimacy and solidity of their power by building grand
temples in which images of their chosen God were installed, animated, named
after themselves (svandmna), and endowed with land and officiants to support
their cult. As we have seen, the great majority of these temples enshrined Siva
[in the form of a Lihga].
The Saivas of the Mantramarga provided specialized officiants and rituals
to establish these Sivas, developing in course of time a secondary body of scrip-
tural authorities, the Pratisthatantras, devoted exclusively to this domain, set-
ting out the rituals of installation (pratistha) and defining the norms for the form
of the Liriga, the iconography of ancillary images, and the architectural design
of the various temple types. 651 Moroever, they asserted the principle that the
Saiva Sthapaka, the specialist who performs these rituals, is competent not only
in the Saiva domain but also on all the levels that the Saivas ranked below it.
Thus they claimed that he is empowered to officiate in the construction and con-
secration of non-Saiva deities such as Visnu following the Pancaratra. 652 This
651 None of the early works of this class have been published. Those known
to learned authors before the end of the eleventh century and surviving in
manuscripts are the Mayasamgraha, not to be confused with the published Maya-
mata, a later south-Indian work, the Pihgalamata, the Mohacudottara , and the
Devydmata, which declares itself the pratisthatantram of the Nisvasa. Four other
works of this type, not known to have survived, are cited by the Kashmirian
Vidyakantha around the beginning of the eleventh century in his commentary
on the Mayasamgraha: the Pratisthaparamesvara, the Nandikesvaramata, the
Paitamaha, and the Pratisthasamuccaya, the last of which was probably a Paddhati
rather than a scripture. On all these texts see SANDERSON 2005a, pp. 440-442.
652 See, e.g., Brhatkalottara , B f. 108v4: bauddhavaisnavapancarthe saurakalamukha-
disu | saivah sarvadhikari syan na saive 'mi kathamcana 'The Saiva [Guru]
has competence that extends into all [religious systems], the Buddhist, Vaisnava,
Pancartha[-Pasupata], Saura, Kalamukha, and others; but [Gurus of] those have
absolutely no competence to act in the Saiva [system]'; Kdmika, Purvabhaga
1.121c-126, on the authority of the Sivabrahmanas, the married Saiva brahmins
who alone were competent to officiate for others: saivah sarvadhikari syat sva-
kiye ca paratra ca || 122 saivah sarvesu kurvanti ye grhastha dvijottamah \ yamale
mdtrtantre ca kapale pancaratrake || 123 bauddhe carhamate caiva lakule vai-
dike 'pi ca | anyesv api ca margesu tattacchastraih svasastratah || 124 saivah ku-
rvanti diksadyam tallihgasthapanadikam | mukhyatvad iha saivasya mukhamaha-
tmyato 'pi ca \\ 125 adhikaro 'sty sarvatra nanyesam sivadarsane \ tasmat para-
rtham atmartham sthapanam yajanam tatha || 126 sivaviprena kartavyam anyesam
svartham eva hi | parartham api kuryac eel Hobhena (em. : lopena Ed.) nrpates
tatha | tadrastrasya ca nasah syad acirena na samsayah 'The Saiva is competent in
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The Saiva Age
universalization of their authority, which is backed by learned theory of the re-
lation of the Saiva with the other bodies of scriptural injunction, seems not have
been merely theoretical. For the Saiva Paddhati literature contains instructions
for the consecration of Visnus, as we have seen in the case of the Paddhati of
Somasambhu, 653 and Vaisnava sources protest at this encroachment, insisting
that images of Visnu installed by Saivas should be reconsecrated. 654
all [systems], both his own and others. Married Saivas, the foremost of brahmins,
can officiate in all [the systems, namely] the Yamala and Matrtantra, the Kapalika,
the Pancaratra, the Buddhist, the Jaina, the Lakula, the Vaidika, and yet others,
using the scriptures of these systems in accordance with their own. [Such] Saiva[
brahmin]s perform initiations and the like, the installation of images, and so forth
[in these other systems], because the teaching of Siva is superior [to all others] and
because the mouth [of Purusa] has been glorified [in the Purusasukta as the part of
his body from which the brahmins, as the highest caste-class, were created]. [The
Sivabrahmana] is competent to act in all [systems], but not others in the teaching
of Siva. Therefore the Sivabrahmana [alone] may worship and install [images] both
for others and himself. Others may act only for themselves. If out of greed [anyone
other than a Sivabrahmana] performs rituals for the benefit of others[, thus usurp-
ing the exclusive right of the Sivabrahmanas], then without doubt both the king
and his kingdom will swiftly be destroyed'.
653 See Somasambhupaddhati vol. 4, pp. 294-311 (visnusthdpanavidhih).
654 In his Pancardtraraksd (pp. 26-27) Vedantadesika, the influential Srivaisnava
of the fourteenth century (EI 13, p. 222), quotes a passage from the Saiva
Kdranatantra that is more or less identical with 1.121c-124 of the passage of
the Kdmika, Purvabhdga cited above, and after asserting that it is inadmissi-
ble as evidence because all Saiva Tantras are condemned by Vedic authorities
quotes a passage from the south-Indian Pancaratrika Pddmasamhitd (Carydpdda
19.128b-130) to the effect that if a Visnu has been installed with the system of
the Saivas it must be re-installed following the system of the Pancaratra and pu-
rified by bathing with a thousand vases. See also Visvaksenasamhitd 39.283-
285: sthdpite raudramdrgena pujyamdne dine dine \ hitvd raudravidhdnam tu
sarvesdm hitakdmyayd || grdmavrddhikaram punyam rdjabhusuravardhanam |
tasmdt sarvaprayatnena hitvd raudram tu tatksandt || sthdpayet sdttvatendtha vid-
hind pujayed dharim | tasmdt sarvaprayatnena na kurydt tantrasamkaram 'If [a
Visnu] has been installed following the Saiva procedure and is in daily worship [fol-
lowing the same] then, desiring the welfare of all, one should abandon the Saiva
procedure and [adopt] the holy [Vaisnava procedure] that will cause the village, the
king, and the brahmins to prosper. Therefore one should abandon the Saiva rites
immediately and scrupulously re-install the Visnu with the Pancaratrika ritual and
and worship it [with the same thereafter]. So one must take great care to avoid
[this] contamination of the [Saiva and Vaisnava] systems of worship'; 39.305-306:
jdtisamkaranenaiva jagac canddlatdm vrajet | tantrasamkaranenaiva rdjardstram
vinasyati \\ rdstram sariram rdjnas tu rdjdjivah sa ucyate | rdstraksaye ksayo rdjnah
tasmdd raksyam dvayam budhaih 'People become untouchables through the con-
tamination of castes. Through the contamination of the systems of worship the king
and kingdom are destroyed. [The scriptures] teach that the kingdom is the body
and the king its soul. [So] when the kingdom is destroyed, so is the king. The wise,
therefore, should guard both [by preventing the encroachment of the Saivas into the
Pancaratrika domain]'. Saiva ritual is called raudra- in the first of these passages
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The involvement of the Saivas of the Mantramarga in the temple cult
covered in early Saiva scriptural sources and all the early Paddhatis up to at
least the twelfth century does not extend beyond the performing of the rituals
necessary to initiate the cult by consecrating the images and the temples that
house them. The texts are silent on the nature of the worship that would be
performed before those images once the Saiva Guru had completed his task. It
would appear, therefore, that the temple worship was in the hands of officiants
of a different kind. However, the texts lagged behind reality in this regard. For
at some point, well before the Saiva literature was prepared to register this fact,
there were Saivas of the Mantramarga working as the priests that performed
the regular rituals in the Saiva temples. The new practice is first attested in
the Far South in the late seventh century. We learn from a grant of the Pallava
Paramesvaravarman I (r. c. 655-960) that a certain Anantasivacarya, whose
name makes it very probable that he was an initiated Saiddhantika officiant, 655
was appointed as the priest with hereditary rights to perform the ritual of
worship (devakarma) in the temple of Siva Vidyavinitapallavaparamesvara
established with his name by the Pallava king Paramesvaravarman I alias
Vidyavinita. 656
The persistent disjunction during this period between what was prescribed
for Saivas and what was being done by some of them is due, I propose, to the
fact that functioning as a priest in a temple, and therefore living off the endow-
ment of the deity in return for one's work, carried a loss of status with which
the older tradition was unwilling to be associated. According to brahmanical
sources any brahmin who persists in such work for three years is considered to
in keeping with the mildly disparaging south- Indian Vaisnava practice of referring
to Siva as Rudra. Cf. the expression rudrakalyupajivakah cited here, p. 278 and the
rule of the Sandilyasmrti quoted by Vedantadesika in his Pancaratraraksa (p. 62)
that Vaisnavas should keep far away from temples of Buddha, Rudra, and the like
(buddharudrddivasatim smasanam savam eva ca | atavim rajadhanlm ca duratah
parivarjayet).
655 Saiddhantika Saiva initiated brahmins have initiation-names (diksdndma) that end
in -siva (with -sambhu or, less commonly, -isvara/-isa or -sarikara as synonyms)
as the second of their two components, and those of these who have been conse-
crated to officiate by receiving the dcdrydbhisekah are referred to as N-sivacarya, a
practice that has continued into modern times. Other Anantasivacaryas are the
author of the Siddhdntasdrdvallvydkhyd, one of the Sivacaryas, probably 95 in
all, among 108 12th-century labelled images at Darasuram in Tamilnadu (SRINI-
vasan 1987, vol. 1:17, no. 60), and one mentioned in an inscription of 1571 at the
Vatar any es vara temple at Tiruvalarigadu (ARE 497 of 1906 [Appendix B: stone in-
scriptions copied in 19051) as a disciple of Ponnambala Dharmasivacarya and Guru
of Immadi Dharmasivacarya.
656 The Kuram plates of Paramesvaravarman I (r.c. 655-90): MAHALINGAM 1998:46,
11. 55-57 (Sanskrit) and 11. 84-88 (Tamil).
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The Saiva Age
have lost his brahmin status and is then known as a Devalaka. 657 He is de-
scribed as an upabrahmanah 'a sub-brahmin' or, even more disparagingly, as a
brahmanacandalah 'a brahmin untouchable'; 658 and this loss of status is con-
firmed in modern times in the way that the Smartha brahmins, the dominant
community in Tamiladu have viewed the Adisaiva community that provides the
priests who after undergoing Saiddhantika Saiva initiation (diksa) and consecra-
tion as Acaryas (acaryabhisekah) perform the worship in the Siva temples of the
region. They were forbidden to live in brahmin streets and the Smarthas would
not intermarry or interdine with them. 659 The Adisaivas, as one might expect, re-
sisted this condemnation, arguing in their scriptural productions and in learned
exegesis that it applies only to brahmins other than members of their endoga-
mous community, more precisely that the three-year rule applies to Saiva initi-
ates other than themselves. Strengthening the brahmanical position they held
that Siva has ruled that ordinary, uninitiated brahmins who work as temple-
priests will forfeit their status after only six months. 660 As modern practice
657 Yamuna, Agamapramanya, pp. 15-16: tatha ca devalah "devakosopajivi yah sa de-
valaka ucyate" iti | tatha "vrttyartham pujayed devam trini varsani yo dvijah \ sa vai
devalako nama sarvakarmasu garhitah" iti 'And Devala [teaches]: "One who lives
off the wealth of a god is called a Devalaka", and: "Any brahmin who does the wor-
ship of a god for his living for three years is called a Devalaka, and is condemned in
all rites'". By 'condemned in all rites' the text means that such a brahmin must not
be chosen as an officiant in any brahmanical ritual or invited as a participant in a
Sraddha.
658 ^ r j c ited in Agamapramanya, p. 16: tatha ca visadataram amlsam
evopabrahmanyam varnayaty atrih: "ahvayaka devalakah kalpadevalaka
ganabhogadevalaka bhagavatavrttir iti caturthah. eta upabrahmanah" iti 'And
Atri makes it absolutely clear that it is those that are sub-brahmins, when he
says: "Couriers, Devalakas, Kalpadevalakas, Ganabhogadevalakas, and fourth,
he who lives by being a Bhagavata: these are sub-brahmins'"; and Mahabharata
12.77.8: ahvayaka devalaka naksatragrdmaydjakdh ete brahmanacandala
mahapathikapahcamah 'All the following are brahmin untouchables: couriers,
temple-priests, those who perform worship to the asterisms, those who perform
worship on behalf of a whole village, and, fifth, those who undertake long journeys'.
659 See Thurston 1909, p. 51, and Fuller 1984, pp. 49-71. The Dikshitars, the
priests of Siva at Cidambaram, rank above the Adisaivas, probably because they
are the trustees of their temple; but they are still considered inferior to non-priestly
brahmins; see Fuller 1984, p. 192, n. 3.
660 Vedajnana II, Atmarthapujapaddhati A, p. 123 and B, p. 99, quoting the Viratantra
and the Samtanatantra: viratantre "bhrtyartham sarvadakdlam adisaivah sivam
yajet | tac ca svadharmanusthanam na dosaya prakalpate || adlksitas caturvedl siva-
lihgam na samsprset | diksitas cdpi yo vipro bhrtyartham tu na pujayet || atmartha-
pujam kuryat *pardrtham naiva (A:pararthan caiva B) pujayet" | samtane "adlksito
'pi yo viprah sanmasam tu sivam sprset | so 'pi devalakah proktah sa narho deva-
pujane | diksitas cdpi yo vipro *bhrtyartham (em. \pratyartham A : bhrtydnced B)
vatsaratrayat \ pujayed yadi devesam so 'pi devalako bhaved" iti 'Viratantra: An
Adisaiva may worship Siva for a living permanently; and that, since it is his reli-
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
reveals, this counterargument had no effect on the Smartha majority; and, in-
deed, it is obvious that its real purpose was rather to defend their professional
rights against encroachment by others, rights that they took care to write into
their scriptures. 661 For, no doubt in consequence of the efflorescence of the Saiva
temple cult under the Cola emperors, we find a new wave of Saiva scriptures
appearing in the South, in which the ceremonial life of the temple and the duties
and rights of its priests are regulated, and, indeed, form their principal subject
matter. Citations from the majority of the scriptural texts of this kind do not
appear before the works of Vedajnanaguru II, composed during the second half
gious duty, cannot be sinful [for him]. An uninitiated [brahmin], [even if he is one]
who knows [all] four Vedas, may not [even] touch the Lihga of Siva; and even a
brahmin who has been initiated may not worship [it] for a living [unless he is an
Adisaiva]. He should worship [Siva] for his own benefit [as a private individual].
He may not also worship him for the benefit of others [as a priest in the temple].
Samtana: If an uninitiated brahmin has physical contact with a Siva [installed
in a fixed Lihga in a temple] for six months he is called a Devalaka and is dis-
qualified from offering worship to [any] deity [thereafter]. Even an initiated brah-
min becomes a Devalaka if he [is not an Adisaiva but] worships Siva for a living,
once three years [of his doing so] have passed'; and Kacchapesvarasivacarya, Kriya-
kramadyotikavyakhya, p. 80, 11. 4—7, quoting the Viratantra: adiksitas caturvedi na
sprsen napi cdrcayet | bhrtyartham paramesanam dlksavirahita janah | *sanmasad
ydnti (em. : sanmasavyanti Cod.) patityam te ca devalakah smrtah || trini varsani
bhrtyartham sthiralihge *hi diksitah (em. :hy adiksitah Cod.) | pujayed yadi *vipras
(corr. wipras Cod.) tu sa vai devalako bhaved iti An uninitiated [brahmin], [even if
he is one] who knows [all] four Vedas, may not touch and worship Siva for a living.
The uninitiated fall from their caste after six months [if they do so]. It is they that
are known as Devalakas. If an initiated brahmin [who is not an Adisaiva] performs
the worship [of Siva] in a fixed Lihga for a living for three yearsf, that is to say, as
a priest serving in a temple,] then he [too] will become a Devalaka'. In the older,
north-Indian literature the Prayascittapatala of the Dvadasasahasra Svacchanda,
quoted by Hrdayasiva in his Prdyascittasamuccaya, f. 92v3-4, defines Devalakas
when considering the matter of contamination by them, as those who as priests
(bhojakah) live off the Moon-god, Brahma, the Sun-god, Skanda, Visnu, the God-
dess, or the Mothers: somabrahmaraviskandavisnudevyas ca mdtarah | upajivanti
ye devi pujayitvd tu bhojakah | te vai devalakas tesam prayascittam vadamy aham.
The omission of Siva from this list implies that it is only the priests of other gods
that fall from caste. Likewise, defending the Paiicaratrika priests of Visnu's tem-
ples against the same consequence, Yamuna argued, citing Vyasa, that it is only
those who earn their live off Rudra (i.e. Siva) and Kali by serving as their priests
that become Devalakas (bhaved devalako yo vai rudrakalyupajivakah): Vaisnava
temple-priests do not become Devalakas, because they have been consecrated for
their work by initiation. See Yamuna, Agamaprdmanya, pp. 15-17 (the accusation),
and pp. 156-157 (the rebuttal).
1 See, for example, the Kamika cited here p. 274, the Vira and Raurava cited in
Brunner 1964, p. 468, n. 11, and the Yogaja, Cintya, Vira, Samtana, and other
Agamas cited by Vedajnanaguru II in his Atmarthapujapaddhati A, pp. 121-123
and B, pp. 97-99.
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The Saiva Age
of the sixteenth century. 662 But some others are already being cited in the thir-
teenth, and one in the twelfth. 663
Here too, of course, the royal connection is maintained and carefully nur-
tured. Thus the ceremonial repertoire of these temples included special rituals
for the king's protection (rajaraksa); 664 and temple festivals (utsavah) were often
timed to coincide with the day of his natal asterism or of that of a member of
his family 665 Indeed the texts place a great emphasis on the connection between
the temple and the welfare of the ruler and his kingdom, warning repeatedly
that while the proper maintenance of the temple and its ceremonies will bene-
fit both, deviations or neglect will have dire consequences for them. This duty
to maintain the status quo naturally included that of recognizing the exclusive
hereditary rights of the members of this priestly community 666
The Adisaivas are the only endogamous community of Saiddhantika Saiva
temple-priests for which we have evidence and they seem not to have operated
beyond south India. But it seems likely that there were parallel developments in
other parts of the subcontinent, evidence of which has been lost or not yet come
662 These scriptures that first appear in the works of Vedajnanaguru are the Amsumat,
the Ajita, the Kdsmiratantra , the Cintyavisva I Cintyavisvasdddkhya, theDTpta, the
Devikdlottara, the Bhima, the Makuta, the Mukhabimba, the Yogaja, the Raurava,
the Vijaya (IVijayottara), the Vidvesana, the Vira, the Samtdna, the Sahasra, the
Siddha, the Suksma, and the Skandakdlottara. The works of Vedajnanaguru in
which they are cited are the Atmdrthapujdpaddhati, Dlksddarsa, and Saivdgama-
paribhdsdmanjari. For his date see Dagens 1979, pp. 6-7.
663 rp^g ex ^ an ^ Kdmika is perhaps the first work of this kind to be cited in a date-
able work. Substantial passages found in it are quoted without attribution in
the Jhdnaratndvall of Jnanasiva, a teacher of Trilocanasiva and therefore a near
contemporary of Aghorasiva, who completed his Kriydkramadyotikd in 1157. The
next earliest known work in which there are citations from such scriptures is the
Sivapujdstavavydkhyd composed by a nameless author in the thirteenth century,
probably in its second half. This date follows from the fact that he identifies himself
as the great-great-grandson of the same Trilocanasiva. He cites the Kdrana, the
Acintya, the Suprabheda, the south-Indian Pauskara, and the Vdtulasuddhdkhya.
I derive this information concerning the citations in the Sivapujdstavavydkhyd and
Jnanasiva's unattributed citations of the Kdmika from a lecture given by Dr. Do-
minic Goodall in the Early Tantra Workshop held in Kathmandu in September
2008. For the relationships between Aghorasiva, Jnanasiva, and Trilocanasiva see
Goodall 2000 and for confirmation of the date of Aghorasiva's Kriydkramadyotikd
see Goodall 1998, pp. xiii-xvii, fn. 24. No Sanskrit Saiddhantika works have yet
been identified which can be dated within the period of three centuries between the
author of the Sivapujdstavavydkhyd and Vedajnanaguru II.
664 Chapters devoted to this protective temple ritual for the king are found in such
south-Indian Saiva texts as the Suksmdgama (pp. 290-297: rdjaraksdvidhih), and
the Diptdgama (pp. 211— 215: rdjaraksdvidhipatalah).
665 See Davis and Orr 2007, p. 91, for epigraphical evidence of such arrangements.
666 See, for example, the passage of the Kdmika cited above, p. 274.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
to light. 667
Saivism and New Settlements
The early Saiva Pratisthatantras show that the authority of the Saiva
Sthapaka was to extend to the creation of the palaces of their kings. Among the
early Pratisthatantras the Mayasamgraha, Mohacudottara, and Pihgalamata,
667 Against the view that the Adisaiva caste is peculiar to Tamil Nadu one might
cite the fact that the Adisaivas are mentioned the Somasambhupaddhati, a work
composed in the eleventh century far to the north (at the end of the Pavitrd-
rohanavidhi): pancayojanasamsthe 'pi pavitram gurusamnidhau \ kurvita vidhi-
ndnena labhate vanchitam phalam | sarvam vai tv adisaivanam diksitdndm
sivoditam | paropakarasilena srimata somasambhuna | kriydkdndakramdvalydm
pavitrakavidhih krtah. However, the line is not in the edition based on Kash-
mirian manuscripts (see Karmakdndakramdvali vv. 494c-496b: pancayojana-
samsthe 'pi pavitram gurusamnidhau \\ kurvita vidhindnena labhate vanchitam
phalam \ adhitasivasastrena krto 'yam somasambhuna || karmakdndakramdvalydm
pavitrakavidhih sphutah) nor in the Nepalese transmission (see Kriydkdndakramd-
vali f. 22v4— 5: pancayojanasamstho 'pi pavitram gurusamnidhau \ kurvita vidhina-
nena labhate vanchitam phalam \ paropakarasilena srimata somasambhuna \ kriya-
kandakramavalyam pavitrakavidhih krtah). It is found only in Brunner's edition
and the Devakottai edition, which her edition reproduces here. It rests, therefore,
exclusively on the evidence of Grantha manuscripts from the south. Evidently, then,
one must suspect that the line has been interpolated in Tamil Nadu by a redactor in
the Adisaiva community Its lack of intelligible connection with what precedes and
follows strengthens this suspicion.
I have not seen the term Adisaiva in any inscription. There the officiants of
the Siva temples are always termed sivabrdhmanah or sivadvijah. That term
first occurs to my knowledge c. A.D. 863 in an inscription of Pallava Nandivar-
man III, from Tiruvallam in North Arcot (Mahalingam 1988:132). Concerning
a grant to the temple of Paramesvara at Tikkalivallam it specifies that 500 kadi
of paddy are for the Sivabrahmanas who offer worship and services in the sanc-
tum (dr[d]di[t]t-updsarikkum [sivajbrdhmanarkku) (11. 25-26). Thereafter the term
is commonplace. But it is clear that it is the group known as the Adisaivas that
is intended, because in these inscriptions when Sivabrahmanas are named their
Gotras are sometimes given and these are those of the Adisaivas as attested both
by their prescriptive texts and among their modern descendants, namely Kausika,
Kasyapa, Bharadvaja, Gautama, Atreya, Agastya, and Parasara. See, e.g., SII
3:41 (Kasyapa), 55 (Kausika), 58 (Kausika), 209 (Kausika, Kasyapa, Kausika);
SII 12:197 (Agastya); SII 17:152 (Bharadvaja), 157 (Bharadvaja), 160 and 161
(Gautama), 162 and 163 (Bharadvaja), 165 (Gautama, Parasara), 203 (Atreya,
Bharadvaja), and 730 (Kasyapa); EC 3, Sr:44 (Gautama); EC 10, Kl:106a (Kausika),
106d (Gautama), 107 (Kausika), 187 (Kausika, Kasyapa); EC 10, Bp:29, 32, 35a,
and 37a (all Gautama, Bharadvaja). Six of the seven, minus Agastya, are listed in
the Samtdna as cited in the Atmdrthapujdpaddhati A, p. 125. Five of them, lacking
Atreya and Parasara, are listed in Svdyambhuva, p. 14 (Acdryalaksanapatala 94c-
95b). This evidence accords with contemporary testimony. According to the data
collected by Fuller (1984, p. 28) the Adisaiva priests of the Mmaksisundaresvara
temple in Madurai belong to the Kasyapa, Kausika, Bharadvaja, Gautama, and
Atreya Gotras.
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The Saiva Age
all prescribe the layout of the royal palace in detail, the latter two distinguishing
between different classes, the highest being that of a paramount sovereign
or Maharajadhiraja; 668 and in the first two works the design prescribed in-
cludes a section of the palace reserved for teachers of the Saiva Mantramarga
(mantrinah, mantramdrgopadesinah). 669 But the layout of the palace taught
in these Pratisthatantras is only part of the layout for an urban settlement
to be established by the king around the palace, complete with markets and
segregated areas for the dwellings of the various castes and artisans, with
instructions for the size and plan of these dwellings determined by caste sta-
tus. 670 The founding of such royal towns is not explicitly enjoined in the Saivas'
ritual manuals. That is to say that no ritual of nagarapratisthd was envisaged.
The Sthapaka was engaged, it seems, only for the choice and consecration of the
site (vdstupuja) and his instructions followed for the layout of the buildings to be
constructed upon it. Nonetheless, we see the Saivas involving themselves in one
aspect of the third of the elements of medieval process that I have listed, namely
the creation of new urban settlements from above. The epigraphical record and
Kalhana's history of Kashmir demonstrate that any king of substance felt it
encumbent on him to demonstrate his sovereignty not only by the building of
temples but also by the creation of new urban settlements (puram), which, like
the deities he established, were generally named after him. 671
One of the early Pratisthatantras, the Devydmata, devotes its 66th chapter
668 rp^g i a y OU £ f th e r0 y a i palace is prescribed in Mayasamgraha ff. 33v-34r
(5.188-199), Mohacudottara ff. 20v-22r (4.245c-281), and Pihgalamata ff. 74r-75v
(10.126-180).
669 Mayasamgraha ff. 33v-34r (5.191-193b): vitathe mantrinam dhama
sarvastrani grhaksate | antahpuram yamapade gandharve gatrsamsrayam
|| bhrhge senapatisthanam mrganabhyadikam mrge | paitre saucagrham
cdtra tambuladivyapasrayam \\ avarodhavadhusthanam sugrive tu tato
nyaset; Mohacudottara 4.257c-258b: vitathe mantrinam sthanam
mantramargopadesinam || sastram antahpuram gatr kasturi saucavesma
ca | tambulasamgrahah strinam *palakan (em. :pacakan Cod.) striniyamakan.
670 Mayasamgraha ff. 34v-35r (5.209-216); Mohacudottara f.21vl-6 (4.270-275b);
Pihgalamata ff. 75v-76r (10.181-194).
671 This practice was followed both throughout the subcontinent and in Southeast
Asia, as the following examples demonstrate: in Kashmir Pravarasena IFs Pravara-
pura (Srmagar), Durlabhaka-Pratapaditya II's Pratapapura, Jayapida's Jayapura,
Lalitaditya's Lalitapura, Avantivarman's Avantipura, Sankaravarman's Sankara-
pura, and Didda's Diddapura, in eastern India Ramavati (Ramauti) (of Ramapala),
Vijayapura of Vijayasena, and Laksmanavati (Lakhnauti) (of Laksmanasena),
in the south Gangaikondacolapura, Parakesaripura, Parantakapura, Rajakesari-
pura, Rajarajapura, Rajadityapura, Rajasrayapura, Rajendracolapura, Vikrama-
colapura, Vikramapandyapura, Vikramasimhapura, Virarajendracolapura, Vira-
rajendrapura, and, among the Khmers Isanapura, Bhavapura, Yasodharapura,
Rajendrapura, and Jayendranagari.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
to the layout to be followed not only in new towns but also in new villages, with
an emphasis on the positioning of the various deities within the plan and the
directions in which they should face. The regulations imposed show us Saiva of-
ficiants on a purely civic level. There is nothing specifically Saiva in the layout.
The Devyamata's chapter on iconography shows further evidence of the involve-
ment of the Saivas in both urban and rural planning. Differentiating various
forms of Siva in accordance with mood and number of arms it tells the Sthapaka
which are appropriate where. 672 The same concern can be seen in the Pratistha
sections of the South-Indian Yamalatantra texts with regard to the positioning
and iconography of the images of Bhadrakali whose installation and cult are
their concern. 673
Saivism and Irrigation
The creation of new settlements and the concomitant extension of agricul-
ture required the provision of the means of irrigation. Rituals for the conse-
cration (pratistha) of wells (kupah), step-wells (vapi), and reservoirs (puskarinl,
tadagah) were already provided by the brahmanical tradition. A Vaidika proce-
dure of the Grhya type is outlined or touched upon in a number of sources; 674
a more elaborate, Pauranika form of the ritual, taking five days and requiring
twenty-four priests in addition to the Sthapaka, is set out at length in the Mat-
syapurana (58.4-56); 675 and the currency of this form is evident from the fact
that it became the basis of further elaboration. 676 There is no trace of irriga-
672 Devydmata f. 68r4: dvibhujo rdjadhdnydm tu pattane tu caturbhujah | tathd cdsta-
bhujo bhadre prasastah pattane sthitah.
673 Thus in Brahmaydmala IFP 40.1— 4b: atah param pravaksy ami pratimdlaksanam
param | navatdlapramdnena pratimdm kdrayed budhah || 2 sildmayam lohamayam
mrnmayam vapi kdrayet | grdme cdstabhujam vidydn nagare ca caturbhujam \\
3 vandntare dvibhujam vidydt parvatdgre tu sodasa | samudre dvddasam kurydt
*jandandya (?) . . . sadbhujam || 4 tatdke dasabhujam kurydt catuspathe caturbhu-
jam; and Brahmaydmala Triv. 3.3-8: grdme ca nagare caiva pattane rdjadhdnike
| raksdrtham vdstavasthdnam pure vai khetakddisu || 4 sarvasddhdranam vidydd
yathdvibhavavistaram \ bahih prakdratah kurydn mdtrsthdnam tu vdstavam \\
5 srestham purvottare bhdge satadanddnta'nantare | tadardhe vdtha tasydrdhe
dasadanddntare 'pi vd || 6 some sydd vdstavam brahman mdtrndm iha codi-
tam | purve vd pascime vapi sthdnam asya prasasyate || 7 yo me purvottare
vapi nagaragrdmasobhitam \ daksine ketakasyoktam anyesdm prdci pascime || 8
dgneyanairrtais caiva trttyam vdyugocaram | + + [ijttham prasamsanti ydmale
sivabhdsite. On these south-Indian Yamala texts, the cult they teach, and their
non-brahmin priests see SANDERSON 2007b, pp. 277-278 with footnotes 140-143.
674 See Einoo 2002 for the details of these sources.
67s a procedure of the Pauranika type is also taught in Asvaldyaniyagrhyaparisista 4.9
and Hir any akesigrhyasesasu.tr a 1.7.1. (ElNOO 2002, pp. 713-714).
676 We find procedures based on the prescriptions of the Matsyapurdna in the rit-
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The Saiva Age
tion rituals in the early Saiva scriptures, including the Pratisthatantras. But in
due course Saiva officiants, seeking to add this important domain to their ritual
repertoire, produced their own version. It first surfaces in our surviving evidence
towards the end of the eleventh century, in the Paddhati of Somasambhu, 677 and
from that source entered both later Paddhatis such as the Siddhantasekhara and
the Atmdrthapujdpaddhati and the second wave of Saiva scriptural literature
produced in southern India. 678 In spite of the Saivized character of these new
rituals the underlying model is still recognizably that of the brahmanical tradi-
tion. The Saiva elements are little more than a veneer on what it essentially a
brahmanical procedure, marked by such distinctive features as the erecting of
a Naga pole (nagayastih) at the centre of the excavation, the casting of metal
images of aquatic creatures into the water, the crossing of the excavation by a
cow followed by the patron of the rite, the making of offerings to Varuna, and
the giving of the cow to the officiant. 679 Nor is there any attempt to attribute to
ual literature of the priests of the Kashmirian brahmins; see *Vdpyddiprati-
sthd, ff. 893rl4-905vl6 (Varunapratistha); ff. 906rl-907v9 (the Varunapratistha of
Jlvana); 910rl— vl (Adityapurdne Nalakapratistha); 929v7— 931r8 (Taddkapratisthd
and Nalakapratistha); and 931r9-931v23 (Chandogapratisthdtah Kupapratistha).
These treatments do not appear to be distinctively Kashmirian. On the subject of
the giving of wells and reservoirs and the Smarta/Pauranika procedures for conse-
crating them see also Caturvargacintdmani, vol. 1 (Ddnakhanda), pp. 1001—1029.
677 See Somasambhupaddhati, Brunner 1998, pp. 392-403 and pp. 406-411. The first
passage sets out the ritual for the consecration of a puskarini, but adds at its end
that it applies also for the consecration of a vapi or tatdkah. The second passage
gives the ritual for the consecration of a kupah. A kupah is a simple well, whereas
a vapi is a step-well, a well with a flight of steps leading down to it on one of more
sides (kupo 'dvdrako gartavisesah baddhasopdnako 'yam vdpiti dvaitanirnayah:
Raghunandana cited in Kane 2ii, p. 893). Such step-wells survive from the early
medieval period, notably in Gujarat. The most splendid is no doubt the Rani ki
Vav at Patan (Anahillapattana), the old Caulukya capital. Both a puskarini and a
tatdkah (/taddgah) are water reservoirs. The difference appears to be one of scale
alone, the latter being larger than the former. Kane (loc. cit. ) reports the view
expressed by Raghunandana in his Jaldsayotsargatattva that a puskarini is from
100 to 200 cubits in length, and a taddgah is from 200 to 800, and the view of the
Vasisthasamhitd as quoted by Raghunandana that a puskarini is up to 400 cubits
in length and a taddgah up to 2000.
678 See Siddhantasekhara of Visvanatha (13th century, Benares), pp. 565-568 (11.1-
28b); Atmdrthapujdpaddhati of Vedajfianaguru II (16th century, Cidambaram),
A, pp. 621-629, citing from the scripture Cintyavisvasdddkhya a passage obvi-
ously incorporated from the Somasambhupaddhati (see Brunner 1998, p. 392,
fn. 1); 'Kriydkramadyotikd , MS transcript, pp. 344-346 (Kupapratistha); Virdgama,
Patala 92. The section of the Somasambhupaddhati on the consecration of reser-
voirs is also included in the Kashmirian *Vdpyddipratisthd (ff. 907vl0-908r9).
679 See Somasambhupaddhati, Brunner 1998, pp. 397-403 (w. 8-19). Saiva ele-
ments: the officiant recites the Pasupatastra Mantra as the patron crosses with
the cow, makes oblations with the Aghora Mantra, instead of making an offering to
the Vedic god Varuna may to do so to the Saiva Vamadeva, and after preparing a
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the ceremony any specifically Saiva purpose or meaning. A work of public utility
(purtam) after all is just that.
That Saiva officiants were engaged to perform the consecration of irrigation
works undertaken by their royal patrons seems very likely. No inscription known
to me records any such ritual, but then no inscription to my knowledge conveys
information about any religious ceremonies that accompanied the inauguration
of reservoirs and other such works. It is even more probable that the Saiva ver-
sion of the ritual would have been performed when Saiva Gurus undertook such
constructions in their own right. We have seen above that inscriptions record the
creation of reservoirs by Vimalasiva, Murtisiva, Prabodhasiva, Patarigasiva, and
Tribhuvanakartaradeva.
Saivism and Social Integration
The fifth and last respect in which Saivism can be seen to have played an
active role is that of the assimilation of the communities that were caught up
in the extension of the reach of the state that characterizes this period. For the
Saiddhantikas opened initiation to candidates from all four caste-classes, 680 in-
cluding the Sudras or at least the Sacchudras or 'Pure Sudras', those, that is, who
had already succumbed to the values of brahmanical society to the extent that
they had abjured alcohol, 681 a move that both promoted the penetration of these
porridge (caruh) with the Mantra of either makes the full oblation with the porridge
using the Mantra of Siva.
680 Vaktrasambhu, Mrgendrapaddhativydkhyd, p. 188: srlmatpauskare 'pi: brdhmandh
ksatriyd vaisydh sudras caiva striyas tathd | *jaddndhabadhird (em. : jaldndndha-
ttrako Cod.) mukd diksydh *saktipracoditdh (sakti em. : sakttha Cod.) 'And in the
Pauskarafpdramesvara]: Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras, women, imbeciles,
the blind, the deaf, and the dumb: all should be initiated if they have been in-
spired by [Siva's] power'; and Raurava quoted by Bhatta Ramakantha on Matahga-
pdramesvara, Kriydpdda 5.93 in support of the view that candidates for initiation
should be brought before the Mandala in the order of their castes: yad uktam
srlmadrauravddau: brdhmandn ksatriydn vaisydn sudrdms caiva striyas tathd 'As
has been taught in such scriptures as the Raurava: brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas,
Sudras, and women'.
681 Pardkhya cited by Trilocanasiva in Prdyascittasamuccaya, p. 141: yad uktam
srimatpardkhye: kdryd diksdpi sarvesdm *tacchaktividhiyogindm (tacchakti
corr. : tacchaktir Cod.) | traydndm api varndndm na tu sudrdntyajdtisu | amadyapds
tu ye sudrdh saivdcdrakriy*ddardh (corr. :ddirdh Cod.) | sivabhaktds *ca (corr. :cai
Cod.) tesdm sd dlksd *kdrydnyaihd na hlti (em. : kdryannyathdnuhlti Cod.) 'As has
been taught in the Pardkhya: 'Initiation should be done for all who have received
the action of [the descent of] his power, for all three caste-classes but not for [ordi-
nary] Sudras and the lowest-born [below them]. One may initiate Sudras, but only
those who do not drink alcoholic liquor, who revere the disciplines and rites taught
by Siva, and are devoted to Siva themselves'.
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The Saiva Age
values and enabled the integration of the landowning agriculturalists, classed
as Sacchudras, that were dominant in the countryside both within and beyond
the core territories of these expanding states. It thus provided a means of artic-
ulating a social unity that transcended the rigid exclusions of the brahmanical
social order. Nor did it allow non-brahmins only to be initiated. More crucially
it sanctioned their appointment as Acaryas, restricting this licence only by re-
quiring that persons could officiate for persons of none but their own or inferior
caste-classes. Thus a brahmin could teach, initiate, and perform ceremonies of
installation only for brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, a Ksatriya only
for Ksatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras, a Vaisya only for Vaisyas and Sudras, and a
Sudra only for others of his caste-class. 682 The key groups here appear to have
been the first and the last. For there is little evidence of the presence of Vaisya
traders in Saivism, and though, as we have seen, Ksatriya rulers were commonly
Saiva initiates, their social status and function were obviously incompatible with
pontifical office. The core social structure here is one of brahmin Gurus initiat-
ing other brahmins, Ksatriyas rulers, and perhaps on occasion members of lower
castes, and of Sudra Gurus initiating both other Sudras and the powerful in their
communities, who though ksatriya-like in their local authority 683 were nonethe-
less formally of the same caste-class as their initiators. The Sastric formulation
: Kirana f. [60]v2-3 (38.4-5): caturndm api varndndm (em. :
catuvarnndpivarnndnmm Cod.) dcdryatvam ihoditam | brdhmanddicatuskasya
dvijo 'nugrahakrd bhavet \ ksatriydditrikam yac ca *ksatriyo *diksito (corr. :
dlksitod Cod.) guruh | vaisyddidvitayam vaisyah sudrah sudrdn tu dlksayet. In this
[system] the office of Acarya has been taught for all four caste-classes. A brahmin
may initiate persons of the four beginning with his, an initiated Ksatriya Guru the
three beginning with his, and a Vaisya the two beginning with his. A Sudra may
initiate [only] Sudras'.
Pardkhya quoted in Dlksddarsa A, p. 26; B, p. 42: *amadyapdh (em. : amadyapa A
: amadyapa B) *kullnds (corr. : kulinas A : kulinan B) ca nityadharma*pardyandh
(em. : pardyanah AB) | *sudrdh (em. : sudra AB) ksatriyavaj jneyds sesd nindyd<s>
tato bhrsam 'Those Sudras who do not drink alcohol, who are of good family, and
devoted to the obligatory religious duties should be looked upon as Ksatriyas. All
the rest are completely to be condemned'. Cf. Pdramesvara f. 3v2-3: *amadyapds
(em. : amedhyapds Cod.) tu ye sudrd<h> sau[cd]cdrasamanvitdh | rudrabhaktds
tu tesdn tu bhojyam annam praklrtitam 'One is permitted to accept food from
those Sudras who do not drink alcohol, who observe the rules of purity, and are
devotees of Siva'; Trilocanasiva, Somasambhupaddhativydkhyd, p. 84: tad uktam
brahmasambhupaddhatau "brahmaksatriyavisdm bhiksdm *abhisastddivarjitdm
(em. : abhisabdddivarjitdm Cod.) | amadyapds tu ye sudrah saucdcdrasamanvitdh
| tesdm eva cared bhiksd ndnyesdm tu kaddcana" iti 'That has been taught in the
Paddhati of Brahmasambhu in the following: "One may gather alms only from brah-
mins, Ksatriyas, and Vaisyas, provided it is not from someone who been condemned
[for some sin] or [permanently excluded from his caste], and also from such Sudras
as do not drink alcohol and observe the rules of purity. One may never accept alms
from others'".
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
of the full set of possibilities, in which members of any caste-class are said to be
able to initiate only their equals and inferiors, serves, I suggest, not as a record
that all these possibilities were enacted but rather as an abstraction that adds
authority to the more restricted common practice by presenting it as following
a universally valid principle upheld in the brahmanical social system, seen, for
example in the rule that a man may marry a woman born of parents of his own
caste or one below it but never a woman from a community ranked above him. 684
Indeed Saiddhantika texts that discuss who may receive initiation and consecra-
tion and who may not include the offspring of such forbidden marriages in the
latter category. 685
Evidence of the existence of such self-contained Sudra Saiddhantika lin-
eages is abundant in the Tamil country at the end of our period and after it down
to modern times. There members of the Sacchudra Vellala community such as
Meykantar, and Nanacampantar played a significant part in the development of
the canon of the Tamil Saiva Siddhanta, and a good number of powerful Mathas
emerged, such as those at Tarumapuram (Dharmapuram) and Tiruvaduturai,
in which the presiding ascetics were and have continued to be members of this
upwardly mobile Sacchudra caste. 686
684 See, e.g., Ydjhavalkyasmrti,Acdrddhydya 57, 91-95.
685 Diksddarsa A, p. 23; B, p. 25: atrddhikdri*tvanirupanavidhir (corr. :
nirupanatvavidhir Codd.) ucyate \ viprddindm dasdndm gurutvam uktam | tathd
cintyavisve "viprddisu catursv evam anulomadisu satsu ca | etesdm dasajdtindm
dcdryatvam vidhiyate" | tathd kdmike "catvdro brdhmanddyds ca anulomas ca ye
matdh" 'I shall [now] explain how one determines who is competent for this [office].
Ten, beginning with the brahmin, can be Gurus. Thus in the Cintyasiva: "It is ruled
that these ten castes may be Acaryas: the four beginning with brahmin, and the six
Anulomas". And in the Kdmika: "The four beginning with the brahmin and the [six]
Anulomas"'. The term Anuloma here is a synonym of anulomajah 'born of a union
that is in the natural direction', that is to say, hypergamous. The six Anulomas are
(1) from a brahmin man and Ksatriya woman (Murdhavasikta), (2) from a brahmin
man and Vaisya woman (Ambastha), (3) from a brahmin man and Sudra woman
(Parasava); (4) from a Ksatriya man and a Vaisya woman (Mahisya/Madgu), (5)
from a Ksatriya man and a Sudra woman (Ugra), and (6) from a Vaisya man and a
Sudra woman (Karana). See, e.g., Ydjnavalkyasmrti , Acdrddhydya 91-92. The -ddi-
in anulomadisu satsu ca in the passage cited from the Cintyavisva is redundant and
may be corrupt (perhaps for anulomdtmasu).
ese ARE 1909, p. 105; Stein 1994, pp. 235-241; Ghose 1996, pp. 222, 253-282. Stein
hypothesizes (1994, pp. 237-239) that this rise of the Vellalas was the cause of the
fact that from the thirteenth century onwards independent shrines of the Goddess
(kdmakostham) began to be built in the Tamil area alongside those of Siva and to
be enclosed with the latter in a single architectural complex. He takes this to be
evidence of "the assimilation of folk conceptions of deity". See also Ghose 1996,
pp. 221-222. There is certainly widespread evidence of Saktization in the later
south-Indian Saiva literature. In the south-Indian Saiddhantika scriptures Rau-
rava, Cintya, Makuta, and Suksma all the male deities in the circuits surrounding
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The Saiva Age
It might be suspected that this is an isolated development pecular to the Far
South; and I must say that I am not yet aware of historical evidence of parallel
developments elsewhere in India at this time or before it. However, it is ex-
tremely improbable that we would have found unambiguous statements in early
texts that are very unlikely to have emanated from that region to the effect that
Sudras may receive consecration as Acaryas, initiate others of their caste and
pass on their office within it, if this was not indeed a widespread practice. This
is all the more certain in the light of the fact that the same early corpus provides
specific instructions on how such initiates should be named, how they should
dress their hair, mark themselves with ash, and the like. 687
Siva in temple worship, from the first of the Brahmas to the last of the Weapons
have been provided with a personal Sakti; see Raurava, Kriydpdda, Patala 59, and
N.R. Bhatt's introduction to his edition of the Sdrdhatrisatikdlottara, pp. xviii-xix
(Cintya and Makuta) and pp. lxviii-lxix (Cintya, Makuta, and Suksma). There is
striking evidence of a related development in the Tamil Saiva literature in the
Tirumantiram of Tirumular. That text has been assigned to the fifth, sixth, and
seventh centuries. But it weaves together the Tamil Saiva Siddhanta, the Vedanta,
a Sakta tradition that features kundaliniyogah and the cult of Tripura, and the cult
of Nataraja. This is a combination which is unlikely to predate the twelfth century
(see also Goodall 2004, pp. xxix-xxx). In Sanskrit the same amalgam appears in
such works as the scripture Jhdnasiddhydgama and the Siddhdntapaddhati of a
Jnanasiva.
687 Sarvajhdnottara A f. 35r3-5 (14.35-40), B pp. 99-100 (Lihgoddhdrddiprakarana
vv. 34c-40b): dpddamastakam ydva bhasmasndnam dvijasya tu \ ndbher urdhvam
nrpasyoktam draktena tu bhasmand || 36 vaisyasya pattikd proktd sudrasya
tu tripundrakam | bhasmand brahmajaptena yathd*sthdnair (A : sthdnesv B)
anukramdt || 37 brdhmanasya jatd<h> *suksmd<h> (A : slasnd B) kanakdh
pariklrtitdh | sthulds taddvigund jneyd ksatriyasya tu vyantardh || 38 vaisyasyaikd
sikhdsthdne tathd sudrasya kirtitd | hrasvd slaksn*dksasamyuktdh (dksa A : dnu
B) samyatasya *jitendriya (conj. : jitendriyah Codd.) || 39 *yajnopavitam sautram
(A : yajhopavltasutram B) tu vipre pahcasaram smrtam | trisaram ksatriyasyoktam
vaisyasya dvisaram smrtam \\ 40 sudrasyaikasaramjneyam nityam avyabhicdrinah
| *arcdgnikdryakdle tu (A : arcdydm agnikdrye vd B) samdhydkdle ca ndnyathd '
A brahmin's bath with ashes should be from foot to head. A Ksatriya's has been
taught to be from the navel up and with reddish ash. A Vaisya may have only a
broad band [of ash] on his forehead. A Sudra may make the Tripundraka marks
with ash on the various prescribed points on the body in the [prescribed] orderf. In
each the bath should be done] with ash empowered by the [five] Brahma[mantra]s.
A brahmin's braids should be narrow and [of the round variety,] called 'thorn apples'
{kanakdh). A Ksatriya's should be twice as thick *. . . (?). A Vaisya should have only
one braid, on the crown of his head. It should be short, smooth, with a Rudraksa
bead attached. The same applies to a Sudra ascetic, *0 you of controlled senses
(?). The sacred thread should always have five strands for a brahmin, three for
a Ksatriya, two for a Vaisya, and one for an observant Sudra. The last, however,
may wear it only when doing Puja, making offerings into the sacrificial fire, and
during the periods of the junctures of the day'; Kirana f. [60]r3-4 (37.10, 12-13):
upavitam *bhaved (corr. : bhavedd Cod.) evam ksatriydditrayasya tu | trisaram
dvisaram vdpi kdryam ekasaram kramdt || 12 pujdtanmdtrakam kdlam nordhvam
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
As for those below the Pure Sudras, that is to say, members of Sudra castes
not considered pure and, below even them, members of the various more or less
untouchable communities denned as the lowest-born (antyajah), these too were
drawn by the Saiddhantikas within the reach of the religion. Texts of this tradi-
tion declare that a Guru is forbidden to give them initiation in the full sacrificial
form {hautri diksa). But if he sees that they are inspired by sincere devotion to
Siva he is required to perform for them a simplified form of initiation that avoids
direct contact. This is to be accomplished mentally {manasi diksa) or in the form
of a gaze believed to transmit Siva's liberating power {caksusi diksa), or by allow-
ing them to drink the water with which his feet have been washed, an extension
of the common devotional practice of drinking the water that gathers at the foot
of an image in the course of its worship. 688
tesam bhaved iha \jatdndm dhdranam *bhasmalepanam (corr. : bhasmamlepanana
Cod.) *brdhmane (corr. : brahmane Cod.) bhavet || 13 tripundraka<m> sikhd caikd
ksatriydditraye bhavet 'This is how the sacred thread should be [for a brahminl.
But for Ksatriyas and the rest it should be made with three, two, and one strand
respectively and may be worn only at the time of worship, not after. A brahmin
[only] may wear [full] braids and smear [his whole body] with ashes. The three
[castes] beginning with Ksatriyas may have a Tripundraka and a single [braid
at the] crown'; Mrgendra, Carydpdda 1.3-4a: vratino jatild mundds tesv agryd
bhasmapdndardh | tilakaih pundrakaih pattair bhusitd bhumipddayah | jatd na
sudro bibhrydt 'Ascetics [should either] have their hair in braids or be shaven bald.
The foremost among them[, the brahmins,] should be white with ash [from head
to foot]. Ksatriyasf, Vaisyas,] and [Sudras] should be adorned with dots [of ash],
Vaisyas with the [Tri]pundraka lines, and Sudras with a broad band [of ash on the
forehead]. A Sudra may not wear braids'. For the differentiation of initiation-names
according to caste see here p. 291.
688 Kirana f. [60]v3-4 (38.6c-7): yathdsthitena bhdvena *mantrdh (em. : mantra Cod.)
kurvanty anugraham || yatas tato *'ntyajasyasydpi (conj. : ntyajasydsydsya Cod.)
diksa *kim tv atra (em. : kintatra Cod.) manasi | kdrukdndm tu samsparsd<n>
*na tu hautrim (em. : nugrahautri Cod.) prakalpayet 'Since Mantras grant ini-
tiation in consideration [only] of the state of [a person's] mentality he may give
initiation even to an untouchable. But [the initiation] in this case [must be
only] through the medium of the mind. It the case of workmen [it should be]
by touching them. He must not do the initiation involving fire-sacrifice [for ei-
ther]'; Kdmika quoted in the Diksddarsa A, p. 27 and B, p. 43: antyajdndm
na hautri sydt kim tu diksa tu caksusi 'Untouchables may not receive initiation
through fire-sacrifice. But they can receive ocular initiation'; Vdyavyasamhitd
quoted in the Diksddarsa A, p. 26 and B, p. 41: asacchudrdntyajdtindm patitdndm
visesatah \ tathd samkarajdtindm nddhvasuddhir vidhiyate \ te 'py akrtrimabhdvds
cec chive paramakdrane | pddodakapraddnddyaih kurydt *pdsavisodhanam (A :
pdduvisodhanam B) | atrdnulomajdtd ye *yuktd ye (em. : yuktaye AB) *vd (A : va
B) dvijdtisu | tesam adhvavisuddhyddi *kdryam atra (em. : kdryamdtra AB) *ku-
locitam (A : kulojitam B) 'The elimination of the paths [of the universe through
oblations in the sacrificial fire] is not permited for Impure Sudras, untouchables
(antyajdti-), and, above all, for outcastes (patita-), nor for those of the mixed castes
(samkarajdti-). Iff, however,] they have genuine devotion to Siva, the highest cause,
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The Saiva Age
Orthodox brahmanical practice denied all Sudras access through Up-
anayana to the Veda and the rituals that are animated by its Mantras and
excluded even more radically the various groups it ranked below these as 'the
lowest born' (antyajah, antyajatih). The texts of the Saivas justified their liber-
ating inroads into the mass of humanity beyond these brahmanical boundaries
by boldly declaring that the system of the separation of the castes (jatibhedah)
is a fabrication without basis in reality, a cultural epiphenomenon rather than
a deep fact of nature, 689 pointing to its absence among human beings outside
of India. 690 Only mentality matters; and consequently all devotees of Siva
form a single community regardless of birth, 691 one whose only true internal
he should eliminate their bonds by such means as giving them the water from his
feet. As for those who are born of inter-caste marriages in which the father's caste
is higher or *if they are connected with brahmins (?) he may do [for them the full
ritual procedure] that begins with the elimination of the paths as appropriate to
the [caste of the] family [in which they have been born]'. The term samkarajdtih,
which I have translated literally as 'of the mixed castes' refers to offspring of such
unions as that between a Mahisya (born of a Ksatriya man and Vaisya woman) and
Karana woman (born of a Vaisya man and Sudra woman; see, e.g., Mitdksard on
Ydjhavalkyasmrti, Acdrddhydya 95.
689 Pauskarapdramesvara quoted in Nityddisamgraha f. 62vl2-13: manusyajdtir
ekaiva 'There is only one caste, that of human beings'; f. 63r4-5: na jdtir vihitd
tatra varnam vdpi sitddikam | yonilihgodbhavdh sarve jiva ekah samah sthitah |
tatra sarvagato devo drsyate jndnacaksusd | ajhdna*dhvastacittdndm (conj. : pdpa-
cittdndm Cod.) kusdstra*vivasdtmandm (conj. : vihitdtmandm Cod.) | vdkpraldpah
sthitas tesdm yadi jdtih prayojanam 'No caste has been enjoined with respect to
them, nor colour such as white. All are born from sexual union and the souls [of
all] are equal. With the eye of knowledge Siva is seen pervading all of them. If
[they declare that] caste is relevant then this is the prattling of men whose un-
derstanding is destroyed by ignorance, who are under the sway of false teachings';
Kulasdra f. 72r2: ekabljaprasutam hi sarvam jagad idam priye | tasmdj jdtivicdram
tu bhrdntipurvam idam krtam 'This whole world, my beloved, has been born from
a single seed. So this concern for caste that people have springs from an error';
Tantrdloka 15.595c-601b.
690 Cintyavisvafsdddkhya] quoted in Diksddarsa of Vedajnanaguru II, A, p. 24; B, p. 38:
navakhandesu sarvesu bhdratesu *mayena ca (B : ca yena ca A) \jdtibhedam idam
kalpyam anyadesesu ndsti tat \ tasmdt tat kalpandmdtram jdtibhedam *iti kramam
(?) 'Maya [the Guru of the Asuras] created this division of the castes throughout
the nine divisions of the continent of Bharata. It does not exist in other countries.
Therefore it is nothing but a fabrication/fiction.'
691 See, for example, Nisvdsakdrikd, pp. 35-36 (12.161-167): 161 tattvdni yo vijdndti
tattvdndm *vydptim uttamdm (em. : vydptir uttamam Cod.) | dharmddharmdn
na lipyeta sa sarvdnugrahe ksamah || 162 brdhmana<h> ksatriyo *vaisyah (corr.
: vesyah Cod.) sudro vd tattvavid yadd | *vibhaktir (em. : vibhaktim Cod.)
naiva vidyeta yathdgndv agnir eva hi || 163 ksiram ksire yathd nyasto toye toyam
ivdrpitam | vibhdgo naiva vidyeta tattvam lsvara*bhdsitam (conj. : Tsvarabhdvitam
Cod.) || 164 yathd hi saritas sarvds sdgardsrayasamsthitdh | *vivektum (em. :
vivekan Cod.) tu na sakyante rasa*bhdve (conj. : bhdvam Cod.) prthak prthak
|| 165 tadvad varndsramd devi diksito yadi vd pasuh | sivabhdvasamd*yuktds
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
hierarchy is that created by the four levels of empowerment through initiation
and consecration. 692
However, it should not be imagined that because they insisted that the divi-
sions of the castes are ultimately groundless when explaining the inclusiveness
of their recruitment they rejected these divisions in practice. It is one thing to
extend one's recuitment into lower social strata and quite another to reject the di-
visions between them in practice. Thus in spite of their rhetoric of the underlying
unity of man they required that caste divisions be respected not only in relations
between initiates and the wider society in matters such as marriage but also in
relations between fellow-initiates. As we have seen, they denied impure Sudras
and untouchables the full ceremonial form of initiation, they refused to transmit
the office of Acarya to the offspring of unions between a man of a lower caste
and a women of a higher, and they would not countenance an Acarya's initiating
his caste superior, in effect a Sudra's initiating a brahmin. They also required,
for example, that when initiates of different caste-classes gathered they should
sit apart, each in a separate line; 693 the penances (prayascittam) that they pre-
(conj. : yukto Cod.) *tulya (conj. : tulyam Cod.) eva na samsayah || 166
sivatantram samasritya vibhaktim yah karisyati | *pacyen narah sa (conj. : sa
pacyen naro Cod.) ghoresu dvatrimsan narakesu ca || 167 brahmanas tu dinah
pahca dinah pahca ca kesave | dinatrayam tu rudrasya pray ascittly ate narah;
Valadharin, Kriyasamgrahapaddhati f. 49r4-vl, extending this principle to in-
clude foreigners (better to initiate a sincere Mleccha than an insincere brah-
min): mayanvito yada sisyo viprajatisamudbhavah | mayahinas tatah patram
mlecchasudradisambhavah || na vipre dapayed dlksam dapayen mlecchajanmine
| nadhikari yato vipro mayadigunasamyutah \\ nisprapancagunair yukto mlecchas
caiva sivagame | dlksa vai sarvatha tasya yato mayavivarjitah. See the same point
made in the lost scripture Mukuta cited by Jayaratha on Tantraloka 15.514cd.
692 Nityadisamgraha f. 63rll-12: taponibaddho yair atma brahmanams tan vidur
janah | pasupasavidhanajnah sivajnananusarinah | te hi devatidevasya puja-
karmani kirtitah | ity uktam candrahasakhye mukutadyagamesu ca samayya-
divisesena jatir ekaiva kirtita 'People judge as [true] brahmins those who have con-
trolled themselves through austerity, who know the bound soul, the bonds, and the
rites [of initiation], and who follow the teachings of Siva. For it is these that have
been declared [fit to officiate] in the rites of the worship of the Supreme Deity. This
has been taught in the [scripture] Candrahasa'; and in such texts as the Mukuta
we are told that there is only one 'caste' [for Saivas] with differentiation [by status]
only into Samayinsf, Putrakas, Sadhakas,] and [Acaryas]'.
693 Somasambhu, Brunner 1961, p. 301 (v. 8cd.): savarnair ekaya pahktya
bhunjitantarmanamunih 'One should eat in silence with concentrate mind in a sin-
gle line with others of the same caste-class'; Trilocanasiva, Prayascittasamuccaya,
p. 25: ekapahktih sada varjya bhojane bhinnajatibhih 'When eating one must al-
ways avoid sitting in a single line with persons of other castes'. Note the distaste
expressed by the brahmin Samkarsana in the Agamadambara (p. 56) when, in a
Kashmirian monastery, he notices that Buddhist monks do not form separate lines
according to caste when they eat together: catvaro varna varnasamkara api va
sarva evaikasyam pahktau bhunjate 'Persons of all the four caste-classes and even
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The Saiva Age
scribed for initiates contaminated by an accidental or wilful contact with a per-
son in a state of impurity were calibrated in severity according the degree of dis-
tance in caste-status between the persons contaminating and contaminated; 694
and they assigned compound initiation-names such as Aghora-siva and Aghora-
gana whose second member indicated the caste-status of the bearer, marking
out brahmins from non-brahmins, non-Sudras from Sudras, or each of the four
caste-classes from each other. 695
from the mixed castes are eating together in a single line'.
See Trilocanasiva, Prayascittasamuccaya p. 25. Similar differentiation accord-
ing to caste applies to the penances for eating the leavings of another's food
(ucchistabhojanam), illicit sexual intercourse, and the taking of human life; see
ibid., pp. 32, 35, 48, and 52-53. How the hierarchy of caste was perceived in rela-
tion to that between the initiated and the uninitiated can be seen in the rules for
the penances needed to restore purity if one's food has been contaminated through
contact with an ucchistah, a person who has eaten but has not yet purified himself.
The rules for initiated brahmins will suffice to illustrate this. If a brahmin initiate's
food is contaminated by another brahmin initiate the penance is 100 repetitions of
the Tatpurusa, the Mantra that is the Lord of his Caste (jdtisah). It is doubled if
the contaminator is an uninitiated brahmin or an initiated Ksatriya. One day of
fasting is added to the repetitions if the contaminator is an uninitiated Ksatriya,
two if the contaminator is an initiated Vaisya, three if an initiated Sudra, four if an
uninitiated Vaisya, and six if an uninitiated Sudra (ibid., p. 31). Here we see traces
of a view that the status bestowed by Saiva initiation should prevail over that of
caste. In its pure form this would entail that a Saiva brahmin should consider con-
tamination by an initiated Sudra one degree less severe than that by an uninitiated
brahmin, two degrees less severe than that by an uninitiated Ksatriya, and so on.
But the Saiddhantikas have preferred to limit the application of this view to the
lowest two castes, where it was of least consequence, allowing an initiated Sudra to
be less contaminating than an uninitiated Vaisya, but not a initiated Vaisya to out-
rank an uninitiated Ksatriya or an initiated Ksatriya an ordinary brahmin. In other
words the primary distinctions here are (1) that between brahmins and Ksatriyas
on the one hand and Vaisyas and Sudras on the other, and (2) that between brah-
mins and Ksatriyas. So while a Sudra will be purer than a Vaisya if he has been
initiated, a Ksatriya, in effect the king or a member of his family, will never be less
pure than a Vaisya, nor a brahmin less pure than a non-brahmin. In this regard
the benefit of initiation in the case of the Ksatriya is limited to an acceptance that
he is no more contaminating than an uninitiated brahmin. But this is already a
major concession in terms of caste and articulates the view seen elsewhere in the
literature that the prosperity of society requires an alliance between the brahmins
led by the Saivas and a monarch who has received initiation from the Saiva Guru.
This view is underlined by the fact that penance is without fasting in the case of
contamination by brahmins or an initiated Ksatriya but with fasting in all other
cases.
I am aware of five different rulings in this matter. (1) names in -siva, etc. for brah-
mins only, in -gana for Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, and in -sakti for women;
see Kirana 37.11-12b: ksatriydditrayasyoktam <m>antranama ganahkitam || 12
vipranam *mantrapurvam (conj. : matupurvvan Cod) tu sagotrantam bhaved iha
'In the case of the three [castes] beginning with the Ksatriya it should be the name of
one of the Mantras distinguished by [the addition of] -gana. In the case of brahmins
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
However, the non-Saiddhantika traditions of the worship of Bhairava and
the Goddess in the Mantrapitha and Vidyapitha have shown themselves much
less willing to tolerate such compromises, seeing them as a contamination of the
true Saiva tradition and appropriate only for those, namely the Saiddhantikas,
whose degree of illumination by Siva is insuffficient to enable them to appreciate
and enact his higher teachings. 696 Distinction on the basis of caste is generally
it should begin with a Mantra and end with the Gotra name [-siva, etc.]'; Mrgendra,
Kriydpdda 8.60c— 61: srajam vimocayen ndma diksitdndm tadddikam || sivdntakam
dvijendrdndm itaresam gandntakam 'He should throw the garland. The names of
initiated brahmins should begin with [the name of] that [on which it lands] and end
in -siva. For all others it should end in -gana; 'and Vidydpurdna, a Saiddhantika
scripture in spite of its title, quoted in Nityddisamgraha f. 63vl2- 64rl3: sivo
jyotih sikhd caiva sdvitras ceti gocardh \ ... etdh samjhd dvijdgrydndm rdjddlndm
gandhkitdh \ saktisamjhds tu *vai (em: vd) strindm sarvdsdm parikirtitdh 'The
gocaras are Siva, Jyoti, Sikha and Savitra. . . . These names [ending in -siva,
-jyotis etc.] are proper to brahmins. The names of Ksatriyas[, Vaisyas] and
[Sudras] are distinguished by the [ending] -gana, while all women are required
to have names [ending] in -sakti'; (2) a Kashmirian tradition in which names
in -siva are for the three higher caste-classes, with names in -gana for Sudras
only, and names in -sakti for women; see Bhatta Narayanakantha on Mrgendra,
Kriydpdda 8.60c-61 cited above, taking dvijendrdndm there to mean not brahmins
but brahmins, Ksatriyas, and Vaisyas; Jayaratha, Tantrdlokaviveka on 4.265ab
(adding names in -sakti for women); Manoda, Kalddlksdpaddhati A ff. 96vl6-
97r9: tatpdtdvasare sivandmdhkitam sisyam vidhdya striyam ca saktindmdhkitdm
vidhdya . . . sudravisaye tu ayam amukagana dgatah iti prayojyam 'When that
[flower] falls he should name a male disciple -siva and a woman -sakti. ... In the
case of a Sudra he should formulate [the Mantra] as follows: 'This man, N-gana, has
come [before you, O Lord]'; (3) names in -siva for brahmins, and in -gana and -deva
for Ksatriyas and Vaisyas; see Brahmasambhu, Naimittikakarmdnusamdhdna
f. 38v4-5 (2.180): tatpdtasucitasthdnapurvam sivapadottaram | ndmdvadhdrya
viprasya ganadevdntam anyayoh 'Having determined the [initiation] name, whose
first part should be the * ...(?) indicated by the fall of the [flower] and whose
second part should be the word -siva in the case of a brahmin, but which should
end in -gana and -deva in the case of the other two [castes]'; Amrtesadiksdvidhi
f. 16r6-7: sisyasya namakaranam sivdmaragandntakam; (4) names in -siva for
brahmins, and in -deva, -gana, and -muni for Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras; see
Isdnasivagurudevapaddhati, Kriydpdda 146 (16.67-68b): sivdntam brdhmanasya
sydd devagandntam anyayoh | sudrasya munisabddntam ndma kurydd 'The name
of a brahmin should end in -siva and those of the next two [castes, Ksatriya and
Vaisya] in -gana and -deva. He should give a Sudra a name that ends in -muni';
and (5) names in -siva for brahmins, -kavaca for Ksatriyas, -deva for Vaisyas,
and -gana for Sudras; see Brhatkdlottara A, f. 91v3-4: sivasamjnd dvijasyaiva
kavacakhya nrpasya ca | vaisydndm devasamjnd ca sudrdndm ca *gandntakam (em.
: gandntikam Cod.) | puspapdtdnusdrena samjhd Hatpdtato (conj. : tatpdtrato Cod.)
hitd 'The [initiation] name should be -siva for a brahmin, -kavaca for a Ksatriya,
-deva for Vaisyas, and ending in -gana for Sudras. The [first half of the] name
should be in accordance with the throwing of the flower [on to a Mandala], being
determined by [segment of] the [Mandala] in which it lands'.
696 Tantrdloka 15.517: ata evdrthasattattvadesiny asmin na disyate | rahasyasdstre
jdtyddisamdcdro hi sdmbhave 'In this esoteric [Sakta/Kaula] Saiva system, since
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The Saiva Age
allowed to intrude only at the point of entry, to determine the length of the pe-
riod during which a Guru should examine a candidate to determine his or her
fitness for initiation, or in the MahalaksmTmata that ends the fourth Satka of
the Jayadrathayamala to enable a Guru to select the impure substance that the
candidate will be given to swallow without inhibition before receiving consecra-
tion (abhisekah): 697
Although there is no division of castes in this great Tantra, it is found nonetheless,
O beautiful-eyed, in the commencement of initiation. [For only] when people have
gone through initiation do they have no caste at all. [Or rather only then] do they
become members of the one 'caste' of Siva. For this reason, in the Visesadiksa
[the Acarya] must do what I shall now explain. Slender-waisted one, he should
initiate brahmins by making them drink wine, Ksatriyas by [making them drink]
urine, Vaisyas by making them drink semen, Sudras by [making them swallow]
faeces, and women by making them embrace the body of an initiate.
We find accordingly a stronger rejection of caste in ceremonial contexts, a
conviction that pride of caste is one of the factors that hold souls in bondage, and
prohibitions against ever mentioning the birth-caste of a fellow initiate. Thus in
the Svacchandatantra of the Mantrapitha we read: 698
O fair-faced one, all those who have been initiated by this ritual are of equal
nature, whether they be brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras, or others [of lower
castes]. [For] they have been brought into a state of fusion with the nature of
Siva. All are said to be [Sivas,] wearers of [his] braids, their bodies dusted [like
his] with ash. All Samayins should sit in a single row. Putrakas, Sadhakas,
it teaches the nature of the ultimately real, observance of such [distinctions] as
[those of] caste is not taught'.
697 Jayadrathayamala, Satka, f. 230v4-6: yady apy asmin mahdtantre jdtibhedo na
vidyate || 33 tathapi diksdprdrambhe bhavaty eva sulocane \ diksitdndm na jatih
sydd eka jdtis tu caisvari || 34 tasmad visesadiksdydm *vaksyamdnam (corr. :
vaksyamdndm Cod.) samdcaret | brdhmand<m>s *cdlipdnena (em. : cdlipdtena
Cod.) *ksatriydms (em. : ksatriyas Cod.) ca sivdmbund || 35 vaisyd<m>s can-
danapdnena sudrd<n> vai visvabhasmand | striyo virdhgasamsparsd<d> dlksayeta
sumadhyame.
698 Svacchanda 4.539c— 545: anenaiva vidhdnena diksita ye varanane || 540
brahmanah ksatriyd vaisyah sudras canye 'thava priye | sarve te samadharmanah
sivadharme niyojitah || 541 sarve jatadharah prokta bhasmoddhulitavigrahah |
ekapahktibhujah sarve samayinas tu varanane \\ 542 putrakanam bhaved eka
sadhakanam tatha bhavet \ cumbakdnam bhaved eka na pragjativibhedatah
|| 543 ekaiva sa smrta jdtir bhairaviya sivavyaya \ tantram etat samasritya
pragjatim na hy udlrayet || 544 putrakanam sadhakanam tatha samayinam api
| pragjatyudiranad devi prayascittl bhaven narah || 545 dinatrayam tu rudrasya
pancaham kesavasya ca | pitamahasya paksaikam narake pacyate tu sah || 545
aviveki bhavet tasmad yadicched uttamam siddhim | avivekena devesi siddhir muk-
tir dhruvam bhavet. This passage is related to Nisvasakdrikd 12.161-167 cited
above, p. 289.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
and Cumbakas [Acaryas] should do the same. They may not sit according to the
divisions of their former castes. [For] they are said to form but a single caste
of Bhairava, auspicious and eternal. Once a person has taken up this Tantric
system he may never mention his former caste. If any [initiate] mentions the
former caste of any Putraka, Sadhaka, or Samayin he will have sinned and will
be roasted in hell for three days of the life of Rudra, five of the life of Visnu, and
fifteen of the life of Brahma. So, if he aspires to the highest Siddhi he must make
no [such] discriminatory distinctions. O Empress of the Gods, it is [only] through
[this] freedom from discimination that one will certainly attain both Siddhi and
liberation.
Rituals involving the participation of people of all castes, especially those consid-
ered untouchable, is a marked feature here; 699 and while the Saiddhantikas were
699 See, for example, Sanderson 2007a, pp. 282-287 for a detailed ac-
count of the orgiastic cakrakridalviramelapah given in the viratandavavidhi-
patalah of the Jayadrathaydmala's fourth Satka and by Vimalaprabodha
in his Kdlikulakramdrcana. The participation of women of the following
castes/professions, in addition to those of the four Varnas, is prescribed in those
sources: Pukkasa, liquor-seller (dhvajini), Antyaja, potter (cakrini), dyer (chippini),
butcher (saunaki), Matanga, tanner (carmakdri), fisherman (dhivari), prosti-
tute (vesyd), washerman (dhdvaki), and dancer (nartaki). The Mddhavakula
(Jayadrathaydmala, Satka 4, f. 128r7 [A]; paraphrased in Tantrdloka 29.66 and
quoted by Jayaratha thereon [B]) lists nine such woman in this context. They are
the wives of a Matanga, a Domba, a butcher, a confectioner (kandukah) (kamduki
A : kdrmuki B), a tanner, a liquor-seller, a cremation-ground worker (kapalikah),
a fisherman, and a potter. The words kapalikah and kandukah have not been
registered in our dictionaries in the meanings attested here. The use of the
former in the meaning 'cremation-ground worker' — see also Narmamdld 2.24cd,
Rajatarahgini 7.44ab and 8.995, and Lokaprakdsa, p. 6, 1. 3 (kdpdlakah in a
list of serving castes) — survives in the Kashmiri derivative kdwoj u lkdwuj u (Gri-
ERSON 1915 and 1932, p. 495b41-46). For kandukah in the meaning 'confec-
tioner' see Prakrit kamdua- and kamdaviya-. Such caste-promiscuous orgiastic
rites are also attested by Kashmirian critics of Tantric practice. Ksemendra at-
tacks them in Dasdvatdracarita 10.26 as a symptom of the degeneration of society
that will herald the descent of Kalkin, Visnu's tenth Avatara: cakrasthitau rajaka-
vdyakacarmakdrakdpdlikapramukhasilpibhir ekapdtre \ pdnena muktim avikalpa-
ratotsavena vrttena cotsavavata guravo vadanti '[At that time] the Gurus teach that
liberation is attained in a Cakra gathering by drinking [wine] from a single vessel
with dyers of cloth, weavers, tanners, cremation-ground attendants, and other such
persons of the service-castes (silpibhih), and through ecstatic orgies of indiscrimi-
nate love-making'; and he gives a vivid description of such a Sakta ritual in Nar-
mamala 3.1-85 (84cd: nirvibhdgo 'bhavat tesam raticakramahotsavah). A tanner, a
butcher, a potter, a fisherman, and a weaver are mentioned among the participants
in 3.13-14. The Kashmirian historian Kalhana tells us that king Kalasa (r. 1063-
1089) fell under the corrupting influence of various Tantric teachers, one of whom
he describes as a merchant who had become a Guru of dyers and other workers
(Rajatarahgini 7.283: rajakddindm silpindm gurutdm agdt) and was giving initia-
tion to Bhairava-worshiping Sakta brahmins (bhattapdddh) (7.283). Evidently the
term silpi used in this context by Ksemendra has a wider sense than that of 'artisan'
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The Saiva Age
in general prepared to descend in the giving of full initiation only as far as mem-
bers of those communities classed as Sacchudra, the Sakta Saivas had no such
reservations, opening such initiation even to those that brahmanism considered
untouchable. As evidence that such initiations were not merely prescribed, for
such prescriptions might be more rhetorical than intended to support actual com-
mon practice, we have the testimony of Bhatta Ramakantha in his commentary
on the Saiddhantika Sardhatrisatikalottara, addressing a verse in that scripture
that might but for his learned intervention be taken to mean that Saiddhantikas
like himself are wrong to draw the line at the Sacchudras. Indeed his Sakta
Saiva near-contemporary and fellow Kashmirian Abhinavagupta cites this verse
as compelling evidence that Siva has allowed elements of the non-dualistic, caste-
transcending view of the Saktas to shine through even in this dualistic stratum
of his revelation: 700
It is for this reason that even in these [dualistic scriptures] the Kaula doctrine is
present for those who have perceived the [highest state of] resorption, as exem-
plified in such [texts] as the Kdlapdda [in the statement] "He may initiate even
untouchables".
The passage to which Abhinavagupta refers is this: 701
The [transcendent] Santyatita [Kala] is the supreme, inactive, eternal void. When
[a Guru] has gained knowledge of that, Skanda, he may initiate even untouch-
ables.
Bhatta Ramakantha argues, as one would expect, that it is purely rhetorical
in intention, but he introduces into his argument a report that the Saktas
were citing it in support of their practice of actually initiating such persons.
Saiddhantikas, he insists, must not follow their example. 702
given in the dictionaries. It denotes rather a person of any service-caste, who lives
by providing a service to the pure castes, from weaving to disposing of the dead.
700 Mdlinivijayavdrtika 1.196c-197b: ata evdsti samhdradrsdm kauliky apiha drk ||
yathoktam kdlapddddau diksayec chvapacdn iti.
701 Sardhatrisatikalottara 8.7: santyatita bhaved vyoma tat param sdntam avyayam
| tarn viditvd mahdsena svapacdn api diksayet. In the other recensions of this
scripture the same expression appears in the Trayodasasatika-Kdlottara (f. 23r5,
Diksdpatala v. 6: sdntyatitam param vyoma sarvagam pdsamocakam \ tarn vid-
itvd mahdsena svapacdn api diksayet). But 'plants' take the place of 'untouch-
ables' in the versions of the Dvisatika-Kdlottara (f. 2v7, 5.5) (D) and Saptasatika-
Kdlottara (f. 5vl— 2, 8.7c-8b) (S): *sdntyatitam (D : sdntdtitam S) param vyoma tat
param *sdntam (D .param S) avyayam | tarn viditvd mahdsena *sthdvardny api
(D : sthdvardny anu S) diksayet.
702 Sdrdhatrisatikdlottaravrtti, p. 65, 11. 6-10: svapacdn api diksayed ity atisaydrtho
pisabdopahitasya bhdvdrthasya "api parvatam sirasd bhindydd" itydddv iva
*pardtisayapratipddandrthatvena (em. : pare 'tisayapratipddandrthatvena Ed.) vi-
dhivisayatvdsambha*vdd iti sirasd parvatabhedavan mlecchasvapacddidiksanam
atrdpi *mantavyam (conj. \kartavyam Ed.) eveti yuktam vydkhydtum. na tu
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Examples of the initiation of untouchables, indeed of anyone other than
brahmins and kings, are naturally hard to find. Nonetheless they are not en-
tirely absent. Thus the Picumata, when giving an account of its own redactional
history in its opening chapter, lists fourteen disciples of a certain Padmabhairava
of Orissa, stating their castes, in most cases their places of birth, and, for those
who were brahmins, also their Veda and, in the case of Yajurvedins, their Sakha.
They include two untouchables. 703 The account lacks the artificiality that might
kuldcdryair iva baldt kartavyam iti 'The words svapacdn api dlksayet convey the
superiority [of such Gurus rhetorically]. For there is no possibility of [this opta-
tive's! being injunctive, because [Panini's rule Astadhydyi 3.3.154 teaches us that]
when a verb [in the optative] is qualified by api [before it] the intention is [only]
to express the superior capacity [of the agent], as in [the standard example of the
grammarians] api parvatam sirasa bhindyat "He will be able, I fancy, to break a
mountain with his head". So it is right to explain that in this case likewise [the
reference to] the initiating of foreigners, untouchables, and the like *is to be un-
derstood (conj.) in the manner the breaking of a mountain with the head [in that
example] and should not be forced to mean, as it is by the Kaula Gurus, that these
persons should actually be initiated'. Bhatta Ramakantha is basing his analysis of
api dlksayet on Astadhydyi 3.3.154 (sambhdvane 'lam iti cet siddhdprayoge). The
example api parvatam sirasa bhindyat is given in the Kdsikdvrtti thereon. The cru-
cial point in this rule for Ramakantha is that an optative can be used to express the
supposition that someone has the ability to do something, provided that the action
envisaged does not actually take place (siddhdprayoge). His interpretation is forced,
because api is more naturally taken with the noun that precedes it than with the
verb that follows.
703 rp^g f our t een comprise eight brahmins: four Atharvavedins, of whom three are from
Madhyadesa and one from Sindhu, a Samavedin from Kashmir, a Vajasaneyin Ya-
jurvedin from Lampa, a Rgvedin of Kasi, and an Apastamba-Taittiriya Yajurvedin
from Oddiyana. The remaining six are two Ksatriya princes from Sindhu, two
Sudras of Saurastra, and the two untouchables (Matarigas), whose place of birth is
not recorded. See Picumata f. 2v4-6, 3r4-5 (1.1.54-62, 76-81): odradese tujdtasya
devadattasya samjhayd | carand *bahvrcasydtha (em. : bahvrjasydtha Cod.) ddesena
na samsayah || 55 asiddhas tv eva devesi padmabhairavasamjna*kah (corr. :kdh
Cod.) | caturvimsatisdhasram grantham dvddasabhih punah || 56 samghdram tu
sahasrais tu karisyati sivecchayd | anenaiva tu Hantrena (conj. : mantrena Cod.)
tatah siddhim praydsyaHi (conj. : si Cod.) || 57 etat tantram asiddhasya sakdsdt
*tata (conj. :tava Cod.) eva hi | srunvisyanti mahdbhdge sisyds caiva caturdasa
(corr. : caturdasam Cod.) || 58 raktabhairavako ndmnd jvdldbhairavako 'parah
| heldbhairavakas caiva trayo py ete mahdyase || 59 madhyadesasamutpannd
*carandtharvands (conj. [Aisa = carandd atharvands; cf. 1.52c and 1.62c] : caranam-
tharvvanam Cod.) tathd \ vdmabhairavako devi vijayabhairavako 'parah || 60
saurdstrdydm * samutpannau sudrau jdtyd prakirtitau (conj. :samutpanna sudrd
jdtyd praklrtitah Cod.) | bibhatsabhairavo devi gajakarnas tu bhairavah || 1.61
candabhairava*kas (corr. :kds Cod.) caiva sindhuvisayasambha*vdh (corr. :vah
Cod.) | bibhatsabhairavo devi gajakarnabhairavo 'pi ca || 1.62 ksatri*yau
(corr. :yo Cod.) rdjaputrau tu candabhairava*kah (corr.:kd Cod.) punah |
brdhmano 'tharvano devi caranena na samsayah || ... 76 karalabhairavo noma
tatha ucchusmabhairavah \ mdtangajatisambhuHau (corr. : to Cod.) padma-
bhairavasisya*kau (corr. :gau Cod.) || 77 yamabhairava*kas cdnyah (corr. :kds
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The Saiva Age
suggest that it is a pure fabrication, and even if it were fabricated it would
nonetheless reveal that this tradition wished to signal to its followers that the
initiation of untouchables has a venerable precedent. Similar evidence is to be
found in the literature of the Sakta cult of the goddess Kubjika in its accounts of
the nine and sixteen Nathas that initiates include in their worship. Among these
too there are untouchables. 704
Nor is it the case that all Gurus of the Siddhanta would have agreed with
Bhatta Ramakantha that the statement in the Kdlottara is merely rhetorical.
This may be inferred from the passage of the Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra cited
above. 705 For that tells the Buddhist adept to acquire a girl for his observance
from a family of untouchables as payment for his giving them Saiddhantika
Mandala initiation, which reveals not only that an intimate knowledge of the rit-
uals of the Siddhanta could be taken for granted among these Tan trie Buddhists,
but also that to give Saiva initiation to such people was not out of the question.
canyah Cod.) kasmlre sambhavisyati | chandogo brahmano devi tathd anyo
bhavisyati || 78 visnubhairavanamano lampdydm visaye tathd | vdjimadhyamdine
vipro bhavisyati tathaparah || 79 daksinabhairavah kdsydm utpanno brahmanas
tathd | *bahvrco caparah sisyo bhavisyati (conj. -.bahvayo cdpard sisyd bhavisyanti
Cod.) na samsayah || 80 oddiydne mahadevi tathd sekharabhairavah | brahmano
taittiriyaka apastambo bhavisyati || 81 caturdasa samakhyata padmabhairava-
sisyakah \jhatva dvadasasahasram siddhim prapsyanti suvrate.
704 The names, castes, and birthplaces of these twenty-five Gurus are given in the
Nityahnikatilaka, ff. 17v5-24r2. Only twelve are brahmins. The other thirteen
are five Ksatriyas, three Vaisyas, four Sudras, and one untouchable, a maker
and seller of alcoholic liquor (kalyapalah) from Kundapura in Oddadesa. He
is venerated as the ninth in the series of the nine Nathas. See ff. 19v4-20rl:
oddavisaye kundapurapattane janma jatikalyapalo mahilo nama | caryanama
srikuharakhyadevah | pujanama srikrsnanandanathah | srikirtinama gaus chali-
krta tada srlgaucchallsadevah | khambah khalitam tada srlkhambhadityanathah
| kapilah prabodhitas tada srlkapilaprabodhanandadevah | asyaiva saktih srl-
krsnapihgalamba pa pu \\ 9 ||. A variant listing of the nine and sixteen Nathas
is found in the Cihcinikaulanam gurusamtatih . There the ninth of the nine
is an untouchable (matahgah) called Kanjika from Elapura (modern Ellora):
sri-elapure mahasthane janma matamgah *srikanjiko (corr. : srikamjika Cod.)
nama caryasuprasiddhah srivimalagalanathah \ pujyah srikrsnanandadevah
| gopyah srikhaganandadevah | tenapi kirtim krtva salavane * salastambho
'nugrhitah (corr. : salastambhanugrhitah Cod.) || 9 \\. Among the sixteen the
seventh is Jayadeva, a karavdlah, probably a liquor-maker (cf. Bihari, Nepali
kalwdr 'a maker and seller of liquor' [Skt. kalyapalah]), from Vahapura, and
the twelfth is a matahgah from Saubhara called Lo: srivahapure karavdlah
srijayadevanamasuprasiddhah | *sriprayagadevah (corr. : srlprayasadevah
Cod.) | pujya *bhairavanandadevah (conj. -.bahyaravanandadevah Cod.) |
srlvlranandadevah | gopya srimeghanandadevah || 7 || . . . srlsaubharanagare
janma matamga lo nama caryasu prasiddhah srikhadganandadevah
pujya sribalanandadevah | ratnanandadevah | trstikanandadevah | gopya vi-
raktanandadevah || 12 ||.
705 See here p. 144.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
For if it had been, this Buddhist strategy could not have been recommended.
Our sources reveal, then, that the Saivas extended their recuitment be-
yond the high-caste circles from which most of our evidence of the religion de-
rives. But, of course, they do not readily reveal the extent to which it was
adopted outside these elites. The epigraphical evidence is almost entirely re-
stricted in this regard to records of the pious activities of rulers and brahmins,
and the Saiva sources, being largely prescriptive in their concerns, tell us much
about what should or could be done by or for various categories of person but
give us no sense of how widely these prescribed activities were adopted or sup-
ported. One of the tasks of future research, then, should be to gather data
that will improve our ability to address this question. At present I have lit-
tle to offer in this direction. But I can at least point to evidence that the for-
tunes of Saivism were not as dependent on the favour of ruling dynasties as
most of the data presented here might lead one to assume, enjoying at least in
some regions such widespread acceptance that changes in the allegiance of a
dynasty had little effect on its popularity. Research into recorded temple con-
struction in the period 450-1050 in South and North Karnataka, that is to say,
in the Turigabhadra-Kaveri and Tungabhadra-Bhima zones, has counted 164
Saiva temples as against 30 Vaisnava in the former and 199 Saiva as against
32 Vaisnava in the latter. This great preponderance of Saiva foundations might
be attributed solely to the predilection of the region's kings, were it not for the
evidence of the next three centuries, when the region passed under the rule of
the Hoysalas (c. 1047-c. 1345), who favoured Vaisnavism over Saivism. For we
see a far smaller shift in the preponderance of Saiva temples than the theory of
dependence on royal patronage would lead us to expect. 293 Vaisnava temples
were established. But the total of new Saiva foundations remains very high, at
about 1,030. 706 This suggests the hypothesis that rulers who invested in Saivism
the wealth they acquired through conquest and revenue were also reflecting the
deeply rooted preference of the majority of their subjects.
Similarly, in Kashmir the rule of the Vaisnava Karkotas (c. 626-855) was
marked by the founding of many royal Visnus, but it would seem that Saivism,
which predominates in the record of religious foundations in earler times, had
merely moved out of the limelight. 707 For immediately after the demise of that
706 p or a n these data see Settar 1992, p. 43 and 54. I have added to the Saiva totals
those of the much less numerous Sakta temples.
707 For knowledge of non-Buddhist religious foundations in Kashmir during the cen-
turies before the advent of the Karkota dynasty we depend almost entirely on the
account of Kalhana's Rajatarahginl. It is highly unreliable for this period, being
wildly inaccurate in its chronology, and, in the case of the Hunnic Hephthalite kings
that reigned from the time of Mihirakula to the advent of the Karkotas, that is to
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The Saiva Age
dynasty it burst forth into its golden age. 708 The humbler religious landscape
of small-scale religious devotion tells the same story For among the very nu-
merous pilgrimage sites of the region those sacred to Siva, Bhairavas, and Saiva
goddesses are overwhelmingly in the majority We see this in an abundant lo-
cal literature of Mahatmyas, texts in Sanskrit promoting these sites; and we see
it in what survives in manuscript of the Kasmlratirthasamgraha, a collection
of abstracts of materials gathered without sectarian bias by the local Sanskrit
scholar Sahibram (d. 1872) with the help of a staff of Pandits for an extensive
say, c. 530-626, it is evident from numismatic data that it also disordered. But it is
significant nonetheless that almost all the early foundations that Kalhana records
other than Buddhist monasteries and brahmin settlements (Agraharas) are Saiva.
Asoka, evidently the emperor Asoka of Buddhist fame, erects a stone enclosure for
the national Siva Vijayesvara and two Asokesvaras within that enclosure (1.105-
106). His son Jalauka establishes Jyestharudra in the capital (1.124), and builds
a stone temple for Bhutesvara at the Nandiksetra (1.148). His wife Isanadevi es-
tablishes circles of the Mothers (matrcakram) at the points of access to the valley
(1.122). Ravana worships Vatesvara, builds a Matha around it, and dedicates the
country to its maintenance (1.195-196). The Hephthalite Huns, with whom his
chronicle reaches kings known to us from other sources, are reported to have es-
tablished Sivas, and, given that they were of Central Asian origin, this no doubt re-
flects the fact that Saivism was the dominant tradition of their new subjects, though
the Vaisnavism that would come to the fore under the Karkotas begins to over-
lay the Saiva substrate during and after the interregnum of the non-Kashmirian
Matrgupta. Mihirakula establishes a Mihiresvara in the capital (1.306). Baka es-
tablishes a Bakesvara (1.329), Gopaditya a Jyesthesvara (1.341), and Khinkhila
Narendraditya shrines of Bhutesvara (1.347). Tunjina I, son of Jalaukas (proba-
bly this is the Jalauka, founder of Jyestharudra, whom Kalhana makes the son of
Asoka), establishes a Tungesvara (2.14) and Sandhimat founds a Sandhisvara, an
Isesvara with the name of his Saiva Guru Is[an]a, and many other Lirigas (2.131-
134). Tunjina Pravarasena I builds the temple of his Siva Pravaresvara together
with a circle of the Mothers (3.97). The short-reigned non-Kashmirian Matrgupta
establishes a Visnu Matrguptasvamin (3.263). Pravarasena II (probably the succes-
sor of Mihirakula, and identical with Pravarasena I), represented by Kalhana as a
supremely devout Saiva, intends accordingly to install a Pravaresvara in the capital
that he has founded with his name (Pravarapura), but a Visnu miraculously takes
its place, which the king names Jayasvamin after the architect of the temple (3.350-
351). But he installs Sadbhavasri and four other [Saiva] goddesses (3.353) in the
capital. Lahkhana Narendraditya, identified by Stein (1900, vol. 1, p. 106) with
the Lahkhana Udayaditya whose name appears on a Kashmirian silver coin, es-
tablishes Visnu Narendrasvamin (3.383). His brother Tunjina Ranaditya prepares
to install two Ranesvaras in two new temples but Visnu Ranasvamin miraculously
takes the place of one through the influence of his wife Ranarambha (3.439-455).
The couple establish a Visnu Ranarambhasvamin, a Siva Ranarambhesvara, and a
Matha for Pasupatas (3.460). The king establishes the Sun-God Ranapurasvamin
(3.462), and Amrtaprabha, another wife of his, an Amrtesvara (3.463). His son
Vikramaditya establishes a Vikramesvara (3.474) and his wife Bimba a Bimbesvara
(3.482). On the later Hephthalites in Kashmir see Dani 1996.
; See Sanderson 2007a, pp. 425-433.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
descriptive survey of these sites and their traditions commissioned by Maharaja
Ranbir Singh (r. 1868-1885). ™ 9 We also see it in the information on the sacred
sites of Kashmir, probably compiled around the seventh century, that is found in
the Kashmirian Nilamatapurdna, 710 and in the list of the major shrines of the
valley given by Kalhana in the twelfth century in the preamble of his history of
the country. 711
Relevant evidence of another kind is available for Andhra and the Far South,
since there, where culturally hostile invaders made fewer and less damaging in-
roads, there remains intact a much larger body of epigraphical evidence record-
ing pious donations, engraved on the walls of the temples of the deities to which
they were made. A survey of temple building and donation in Andhra during the
thirteenth century under the Kakatiyas of Warangal has shown that the great
majority of endowed deities mentioned in the epigraphical corpus were Saiva.
247 Siva temples constitute 67 per cent of the total and Vaisnava temples only
19 per cent, and the latter are mostly south of the Krishna river, increasing
in frequency the further south they are, no doubt under the influence of the
resurgence of Vaisnavism in the Tamil region after Ramanuja (d. 1137). From
the record of those who made donations to these Saiva temples, particularly to
long-established, major temples such as those of Draksarama and Tripurantaka,
we can see that they were far from being restricted to the circles of royalty
or the landed gentry. A high proportion of the donations are from herders,
women, and traders. 712 Likewise in the Tamil country we find in Cola times
(850-1279) a number of records of donations to Siva temples made by members
of the Sacchudra Vellala caste, the dominant cultivators of the region. 713
709 On the Kashmirian Mahatmya literature and the Kasmiratirthasamgraha of
Sahibram see Stein 1900, vol. 2, pp. 383-385.
710 See Tokunaga 1994.
711 Rdjatarahgini 1.29-38. Here he mentions the following as the principal
deities of the region: Gauri in the form of the river Vitasta, the Nagas
"Sarikha, Padma, and others", Papasudana (the Siva Kapatesvara), the goddess
Samdhya (Samdhyabhattarika), Svayambhu (a Siva), Bhedadevi, [the Sivas of the]
Nandiksetra (Bhutesvara and Jyesthesvara), Saradadevi, Cakradhara (Visnu), and
Vijayesvara (Siva).
712 This evidence is derived from the work of Talbot (2001, pp. 87-125), who provides
detailed statistics and on their basis presents a cogent analysis of the patterns of
temple patronage in this region and period.
713 For Vellalas who gave to Saiva temples, most commonly cattle or cash to provide
an income to fund a perpetual lamp, see, e.g., SII 3:17 of A.D. 1014; SII 3:116 of
A.D. 991; SII 13:34 (ARE 312 of 1906) of A.D. 941; SII 13:44 (ARE 227 of 1911); SII
13:56 (ARE 542 of 1920); SII 13:62 (ARE 618 of 1920); SII 13:66 (ARE 238 of 1923);
SII 13:112 (ARE 126 of 1914); SII 13:189 (ARE 332 of 1927); SII 13:300 (ARE 5
of 1907) of A.D. 871-907; SII 13:47 (ARE 216 of 1932-1933); SII 14:47 (ARE 216 of
1932-33); SII 14:131 (ARE 213 of 1932-33); SII 14:135 (ARE 416 of 1929-30); SII
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The Saiva Age
There is another manner in which Saivism is likely to have played a sig-
nificant part in the process of social integration during this period, one which
I wish to touch on only briefly and tentatively at this stage. This was in the
incorporation of the many local deity-cults of the regions being drawn into the
orbit of the state and its patronage of religion. In this it seems that it was the
non-Saiddhantika traditions of the worship of Bhairavas, goddesses, and Yoginis,
with their indifference to caste-status and brahmanical criteria of purity and
their cults of possession that are likely to have provided the avenue of assimi-
lation. 714 It seems likely, though difficult to prove, that much of the character
of these traditions resulted from this process of incorporation on the frontier be-
tween the brahmanical and the not yet brahmanized.
The Saiva-brahmanical Order
While extending its influence far beyond the confines of the orthodox brah-
manical world the Saivism of the Mantramarga sought to guard itself against
dissociation from that world. It elaborated an inclusivist model of revelation that
ranked other religious systems as stages of an ascent to liberation in Saivism, 715
14:140 (ARE 76 of 1907); SII 14:155 (ARE 11 of 1907; SII 14:202 (ARE 394 of 1929-
30); SII 14:246 (ARE 108 of 1908); SII 17:197 (ARE 176 of 1904) of a.d. 1018-19;
SII 17: 204 (ARE 183 of 1904); SII 17:238 (ARE 216 of 1904) of A.D. 1006/7 (with
a Valangai Velaikkarar soldier); SII 17:471 (ARE 440 of 1904) of a.d. 990/991; SII
2:95 (a merchant [vydpdrin]); SII 17:315 (ARE 286 of 1904) (a Valangai Velaikkarar
soldier) of a.d. 1016. See also Ghose 1996, pp. 277-282 on the predominance of
the upper statra of non-brahmin society in temple patronage in recent times.
On the process by which local deities, often of tribal origin, were assimilated into
Sakta Saivism through their adoption as the tutelaries of local rulers see Sinha
1962 and 1987; and Mallebrein and von Stietencron 2008, pp. 39-67, 93-
107, and 173-178. See also Chakrabarti 2001, especially pp. 165-233 (Chapter
5: 'Appropriation as a Historical Process: The Cult of the Goddess'), for the case of
Bengal. See Sinha Kapur 2002, pp. 209-225 on the case of Mewar in Rajasthan.
See, e.g., Svacchanda 11.69-74 (Buddhists > Jainas > Vaidikas > Samkhyas > Yo-
gasthas > Pasupatas > Mausulas and Kanakas > Vaimalas and Lakulas > Saivas);
Sarvajhdnottara A f. 37rl-3, B p. 96 (Lihgoddhdrddiprakarana v. 3): jhdnacaryd-
nvito bauddho buddhitattvam avdpnuydt \ tdmasam *jinabhaktas tu paurusam
brahmavedinah || 4 kevaldrthavidah kalam prapnuvanti jitendriydh | vaidyesva-
resvare tattve somasiddhdntavedinah (A : (A : jinabhaktdndm prapnuvanti + + +
+ B); Agama quoted by Bhatta Ramakantha in Naresvaraparlksdprakdsa, p. 207:
buddhitattve sthita bauddha gunesu tu arhatah sthitah I gunamurdhni sthitah
samkhya avyakte pancaratrikah; Somasambhu, Brunner 1977, p. 553 (vv. 7-
8): buddhitattve sthita bauddha jainas tu gunamastake | vedantajhas tu tady-
onau puruse bhagavanmukhah | pasupatas tu mayayam vidydyam tu mahavratah.
bauddhadilihginam esam muktisthanany anukramat; Trilocanasiva, Siddhanta-
samuccaya, pp. 73-87; Ksemaraja, Pratyabhijhahrdaya on Sutra 8 (tadbhumikah
sarvadarsanasthitayah 'The positions of all doctrines are its stages'); and here p. 47
(Manthanabhairava).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the religion of the king manifest in his initiation, his consecration, and his royal
temples, thus mirroring and validating the incorporative structure of the state's
power. But though it thereby asserted, especially in its Sakta forms, the limited
nature of the brahmanical observance that formed the lowest level and broad
base of this hierarchy, it was careful to insist not only that the brahmanical
scriptures that govern this observance are exclusively valid in their own domain
but also that their injunctions are as binding on Saivas after their initiation as
they were before it if they remained in that domain as active members of society
Saiva ascetics were allowed a degree of choice in this matter, at least in theory,
but householders were not. 716 The religion of the Saivas, then, was not Saivism
alone but rather Saivism and Brahmanism, a fact born out not only by their lit-
erature but also by biographical data and the epigraphic record of the activities
of Saiva kings.
Moreover, the determination of the Saivism of the Mantramarga to be fully
embedded in the brahmanical tradition is manifest not only in this rule that ini-
tiates should maintain their brahmanical obligations but also in the fact that
they extended their own ritual repertoire in order to bring it into greater congru-
ence with the brahmanical. To this end they created a Saiva ritual of cremation
and a series of rituals to mirror the numerous brahmanical postmortuary rituals
in which the deceased receives offerings first as a hungry ghost (pretakriya) and
then in Sraddha rituals as an ancestor, after his incorporation with the immedi-
ate ascendants of his patriline (sapindikaranam). It is clear that the creators of
these additions were motivated by nothing but the desire to be seen to conform to
the norms of brahmanical society once the Saivas had moved to extend recruit-
ment beyond the inevitably restricted circle of ascetics into the more numerous
ranks of married householders. For these rituals and especially the Sraddhas
make no sense in srictly Saiva terms, since initiates are held to attain liberation
as soon as they leave their bodies and therefore should require no ceremonies
designed to ensure their well-being after death. 717 This accommodation of Brah-
716 The Saivas' doctrines of the relationship between their scriptures and those of the
brahmanical tradition with respect both to householders and ascetics are examined
in detail together with epigraphical evidence in Sanderson forthcoming b.
717 For a more detailed examination of the Saiva postmortuary rituals and their ra-
tionale see Sanderson 1995a, pp. 31-38. They are not found in the preceding
Pasupata tradition of the Atimarga, in which the dead were buried, nor indeed in
the earliest stage of the Mantramarga represented by the substantial Nisvdsa cor-
pus, which in this and numerous other respects remained close to its Atimargic
antecedents, appearing only in the Diksottara, which was added to that corpus at
a later date, and in several other later scriptures of the Siddhanta, most notably
in the Kirana, whose treatment of the Sraddha rituals became the basis for that
found in the Paddhati of Somasambhu and the later Paddhatis that followed its
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The Saiva Age
manism no doubt gave Saivism a distinct advantage over those religions that
denied outright the authority of the brahmanical scriptures and there can be lit-
tle doubt that this would greatly have increased its acceptability in the eyes of
kings, who could thus draw on the power of the new religion to sanctify their rule
and enhance their might — the former predominantly through the Siddhanta, the
latter predominantly through the Sakta Saiva systems — while at the same time
maintaining their legitimacy in their ancient role as the protectors of the brah-
manical social order.
As Saivism advanced by developing the strategies explored in this study it
achieved a transregional organization and a consequent standardization of its
rituals and doctrines; and this transregional uniformity, I propose, would have
heightened its appeal to kings by enabling it more easily to be perceived as a
transcendent means of legitimation, empowerment, and the integration of re-
gional traditions, as an essential part of a pan-Indian socio-religious order that
each kingdom sought to exemplify It was by virtue of its great success in at-
tracting royal patronage that it came to exert such a pervasive influence on the
religions around it; and it was also on the basis of this success that it could con-
struct the impressive edifice of a literature that is almost entirely silent about
these vital but less elevated aspects of its life.
lead. An intermediate stage in this development is probably to be recognized in the
Sarvajhdnottara and the Svdyambhuvasutrasamgraha, which teach a cremation
ritual for initiates but make no mention of Sraddha rituals. I say that the Sraddhas
make less sense in strictly Saiva terms, because some attempt was made to justify
cremation. To create their cremation ritual the Saivas adapted their ritual of initia-
tion. The soul of the deceased is to be drawn back into the corpse before it is burned
on the pyre in order to undergo initiation, just as it did in life. Since the function
of initiation is to liberate the soul by destroying all that impedes its liberation this
re-initiation of the deceased was justified as a means of eliminating any obstacles
that might still be present as a result of the initiate's failure to expiate breaches of
discipline that had not been expiated during his lifetime.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ABBREVIATIONS
AIISPL = American Institute of Indian Studies Photograph Library
ARE = Annual Reports on Indian Epigraphy
ASB = Asiatic Society of Bengal
ASI = Archaeological Survey of India
BEFEO = Bulletin de I'Ecole frangaise d'Extreme-Orient
Blue Annals - ROERICH 1995.
BORI = Poona, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
CII 3 = Fleet 1888
CII 4 = Mirashi 1955
CII 5 = Mirashi 1963
DK = Derge Kanjur
DT = Derge Tenjur
EC - Epigraphia Carnatica
EFEO = Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient
EI - Epigraphia Indica
EITA = Meister et. al. 1983-1991
GOS = Gaekwad's Oriental Series
HBI = Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya 1990
IA = Indian Antiquary
IASWR = Institute for the Advanced Study of World Religions
IAR = Indian Archaeology, A Review
IFI = Institut francais d'Indologie
IFP = Institut francais de Pondichery
IIJ = Indo-Iranian Journal
ISCC = Bergaigne 1893
JA = Journal Asiatique
K = Khmer inscription, numbered as in CCEDES 1966
KLK = Kaiser Library, Kathmandu
KSTS = Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies
LKA = Vajracarya 1996
NAK = National Archives, Kathmandu
NGMPP = Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project, Reel number
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The Saiva Age
BLO = Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
r. = ruled
SII = South Indian Inscriptions
SORL = Srinagar, Oriental Research Library, Jammu & Kashmir Research and
Publication Department
T. = TAKAKUSU and Watanabe 1924-1932
Toh. = Ul et al. 1934
TUL = Tokyo University Library
ULC = University Library, Cambridge
Xiyuji = BEAL 1884
REFERENCES
Sanskrit Texts and Authors
Agnipurana, ed. Baladeva Upadhyaya. Kashi Sanskrit Series 174. Varanasi:
The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1966.
Anarghardghava of Murari with the commentary of Rucipati, ed. Pandit
Durgaprasad and Wasudev Laxman Shastri Pansikar. Kavyamala 5. 3rd
edition. Bombay: Nirnaya-sagar, 1908.
Anekarthasamgraha of Hemacandra, ed. Th. Zachariae. Sources of Sanskrit
Lexicography 1. Vienna: Alfred Holder; Bombay: Education Society's Press,
1893.
Abhayapaddhati, the commentary of Abhayakaragupta on the Buddhakapala-
tantra. NAKMS 5-21, NGMPP A48/2: Maithila script.
Abhidharmakosabhasya of Vasubandhu, ed. P. Pradhan. Patna: K.P Jayaswal
Research Institute, 1967.
Abhidhanottaratantra. A = IASWR, Film-strip MBB-1971-100-108: palm-leaf;
Bhujimol script; A.D. 1138; B = NGMPP E695/3: paper; Newari script; A.D.
1665. See also mNgon brjod rgyud bla ma under Tibetan Texts.
Abhisamayamanjarl of Sakyaraksita, ed. in Dhlh 13 (1992), pp. 123-154.
Abhisamayalamkaraloka of Haribhadra, ed. Unrai Wogihara. Tokyo: The Toyo
Bunko, 1932-1935.
Amarakosa: Amarakosa with the Unpublished South Indian Commentaries
Amarapadavivrti of Lingayasurin and Amarapadaparijata of Mallinatha, ed.
AA. Ramanathan. Adyar Library Series 101. Adyar, Madras: Adyar Library
and Research Centre, 1971.
-305-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Amrtesadlksavidhi of Visvesvara. NAK MS 5-4867, NGMPP A231/17: paper;
Devanagari; incomplete; no date.
Avadanakalpalata of Ksemendra, ed. P.L. Vaidya. 2 vols. Buddhist Sanskrit
Texts 22. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1959.
Agamadambara of Jayantabhatta. See DEZSO 2005.
Agamapramanya of Yamunacarya, ed. M. Narasimhachary GOS 160. Baroda:
Oriental Institute, 1976.
Acaryakriyasamuccaya of Mahamandalacarya Jagaddarpana: Kriya-Samuccaya:
A Sanskrit Manuscript from Nepal Containing a Collection of Tantric Ritual
by Jagaddarpana reproduced by Lokesh CHANDRA from the collection of Prof.
RAGHUVIRA. Sata-pitaka 237. New Delhi: Sharada Rani, 1977.
Atmarthapujapaddhati of Vedajnanaguru II. A = IFP MS Transcript 1056; B =
IFP MS Transcript 282.
Adikarmapradipa, ed. Hisao Takahashi (Adikarmapradipa bonbun kotei:
Tokyo daigaku shahon ni yoru [A Sanskrit edition of the Adikarmapradipa
on the basis of the manuscript preserved in Tokyo University]). In Indogaku
Mikkyogaku kenkyu: Miyasaka Yusho hakase koki kinen ronbunshu [Stud-
ies on Buddhist Tantra on the Occasion of the 70th Birthday of Dr. Yusho
Miyasaka], vol. 2. Kyoto: Hozokan, 1993. Other witnesses: — T = Tokyo
University MS 57 (New) / 349 (Old); P = the edition prepared by Louis de
la Vallee Poussin on the basis of a manuscript in the Royal Asiatic Society,
London, in Bouddhisme, etudes et materiaux, London, 1898, Pt. 2, pp. 186-204.
Indrabhuti. See 'Khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po bde mchog bsdus pa zhes
bya ba'i mam par bshad under Tibetan Texts.
Isanasivagurudevapaddhati (Siddhantasara) of Isanasiva, ed. T Ganapati
Sastri. 4 parts. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series 60, 72, 77, and 83.
Isvarasamhita, ed. Prativadi Bhayankara. Sastramuktavali 45. Kanci, 1923.
Ugracandaprakarana. ASB MS 11354 ('Tantric Digest of Unknown Name'), ff.
39v9-67r7: paper: Newari script.
Upakesagacchapattavall. See HOERNLE 1890.
Urmikaularnava. NAK MS 5-4207, NGMPP B115/9: paper; Newari script.
Kathasaritsagara of Somadeva, ed. Pandit Jagadis Lai Sastri, Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1970.
Kambalapada. See Sadhananidhi.
Karmakanda, vol. 4 (panditakesavabhattajyotirvida samskarasodhanabhyam
sampaditam sangopanga-visnubali-sahga-saivakriyatmakam karmakandam,
caturthapustakam), ed. Pandita Kesavabhatta Jyotirvid, Bombay, 1936;
reproduced photographically by Lokesh Chandra in pp. 127-247 of volume 7
of Sanskrit Texts from Kashmir, Satapitaka Series 333, New Delhi, 1984.
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The Saiva Age
Karmakandakramavali of Somasambhu: Karmakanda-kramavali By Sri So-
masambhu, ed. Jagaddhar Zadoo. KSTS 73. Srinagar, 1947. See also
Kriyakandakramavali and Somasambhupaddhati.
Kaladlksapaddhati of Manoda, expanded (vistaritah) by Sivasvamin. A = BORI
157 of 1886-92 ('Kaladlksavidhi': paper: Sarada script; B = BORI MS 440 of
1875-76: paper; Kashmirian Devanagari.
Kathakagrhyasutra with extracts from the commentaries of Devapala,
Brahmanabala, and Adityadarsana, ed. Willem Caland. Srimaddayananda
Mahavidyalaya Samskrtagranthamala 1. Lahore: Research Dept., D.A.V.
College, 1925.
Kdmika. No editor accredited: published by C. Swaminatha Sivacarya. Madras:
Daksinabharatarcakasarigha, 1975.
Karandavyuha, ed. RL. Vaidya. Mahayana-sutra-samgraha, Part 1, Sutra 12,
pp. 258-308. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 17. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1961.
Kallkulakramasadbhava. NAK MS 1-76, NGMPP A209/23: paper; Newari
script; incomplete (1.1-7.2).
Kallkulakramarcana of Vimalaprabodha. NAK MS 3-314, NGMPP A129/9: pa-
per: Newari script; undated.
Kalottaratantra. NAK MS 5-4632, NGMPP B118/7: paper; Devanagari. The
codex contains in sequence the following texts: (1) Kalottare Jnanapancasika,
ff. Ivl-4v7 (not a Kalottara recension; see GOODALL 2007, pp. 127-128),
(2) Kalajnane Satikam, ff. 4v7-9r6; (3) Kalottare Sardhasatikam, ff. lvl-
6v9; (4) Kalottare Dvisatikam, ff. Ivl-9v3; (5) Kalottare 'dhyustasatam
(Sardhatrisatikam), ff. Ivl-17v3; (6) Kalottare Saptasatikam, ff. Ivl-25r3; (7)
Kalottare Trayodasasatikam, ff. Ivl-46v7. This appears to be an apograph of
NAK MS 1-1114, NGMPP B25/7, an undated Nepalese palm-leaf MS in the
Nagari script, except that it has added the Sardhasatika recension from some
other source (GOODALL 2007, p. 129).
Kasikavrtti of Jayaditya and Vamana on the Astadhyayl of Panini, ed. Pandita
Sobhitamisra. Kasi-samskrta-granthamala 37. Banaras: Jaya Krishna Das
Harisdas Gupta, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1952.
Kasmiratirthasamgraha, materials compiled by Sahibram for Maharaja Ranbir
Singh (r. 1868-1885). BLO MS Stein d. 33 iii: paper; Sarada script; incom-
plete.
Kirana. NAK MS 5-893, NGMPP A40/3 (= Kiranatantra, Kiranagama): palm-
leaf; Licchavi script; incomplete; A.D. 924. For chapters 1-6 with the commen-
tary of Bhatta Ramakantha; see GOODALL 1998.
Kubjikamata. See GOUDRIAAN and Schoterman 1988.
Kumarapalacaritrasamgraha: bhinnabhinna-vidvatkartrka paramarhatabi-
-307-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ruddlahkrtagurjaracaulukyacakravarti-nrpatikumdrapdlacaritrasamgraha
I Kumdrapdla Charitrasamgraha (A Collection of Works of Various Authors
Relating to Life of King Kumarapala of Gujarat), ed. Acharya Jina Vijaya
Muni. Singhi Jain Series 41. Bombay: Singhi Jain Shastra Shikshapath,
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1956.
Kumdrapdladevacarita of Somatilakasuri. Kumdrapdlacaritrasamgraha, pp. 9-
33.
Kumdrapdladevaprabandha of the Caturasltiprabandha. Kumdrapdlacaritra-
samgraha, pp. 112i-112xxiv.
Kumdrapdlaprabodhaprabandha, anonymous. Kumdrapdlacaritrasamgraha,
pp. 35-111.
Kumdrasambhava of Kalidasa, Cantos 1-8, with the commentary (samjlvani) of
Mallinatha, ed. M.R. Kale, Bombay: Gopal Narayen, 1923.
Kularatnoddyota: Kularatnoddyotatantra. NAKMS 1-16, NGMPP A206/10: pa-
per; Newari script; A.D. 1734.
Kulasdra. NAK 4-137, NGMPP A40/11: palm-leaf; early Nagari.
Krtyakalpataru: Krtyakalpataru of Bhatta Laksmldhara. Vol. Ill, Niy-
atakdlakdnda, ed K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar. Baroda: Oriental Institute,
1950.
Krsnayamdritantra, with the commentary (ratndvall ndma panjikd) of
Kumaracandra, ed. S. Rinpoche and V. Dwivedi. Rare Buddhist Text
Series 9. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,
1992.
Kriyakdndakramdvall of Somasambhu. ULC MS Add 1406 12: palm-leaf;
Newari script; undated (12th century); KLK MS 539, NGMPP CI 14/22
('Kriyakdndapadakramdvalf): palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1159. See
Somasambhupaddhati and Karmakdndakramdva.il.
'Kriyakramadyotika '. IFP MS Transcript 1076. A Saiva miscellany.
Kriyakramadyotikdvydkhyd of Kacchapesvarasiva. IFP MS Transcript 109.
Kriyasamgrahapanjikd ofKuladatta. See TANEMURA 2004b.
Kriyasamgrahapaddhati of Valadharin. KLK MS 63; NGMPP C5/3: palm-leaf;
Bhujimol script; A.D. 1091/2.
Ganaratnamahodadhi of Vardhamana with his own commentary (-vrtti), ed. J.
Eggeling. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1963. First published 1879.
Gilgit Manuscript Facsimiles: Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts. Raghu Vira and
Lokesh Chandra. Sata-pitaka, Indo-Asian literatures, v. 10, parts. 1-10. New
Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1959-.
Gilgit Manuscripts, ed. Nalinaksha Dutt with the assistance of D.M. Bhat-
tacharya and Shiv Nath Sharma. 4 volumes (volume 3 in 3 parts). Srinagar:
-308-
The Saiva Age
His Highness' Government, Jammu and Kashmir, 1939-1959.
Gitabhasya of Sarikara with the sub-commentary of Anandagiri, ed. Kasinatha
Sastri Agase. Anandasrama Sanskrit Series 34. Pune: Anandasrama Press,
1931.
Gurupancasika of Aryadeva, vv. 1-33, ed. Sylvain Levi (1929, pp. 259-263); w.
34-50 reconstructed from the Tibetan translation by J. Pandey in Dhlh 13
(1992), pp. 16-20.
Gurupustikd of Rajanaka Sitikantha. Banaras Hindu University, Sayaji Rao
Gaekwad Central Library, MS CN. 4115: paper: Sarada script; complete but
for the end of the last section.
Guhyasamayasadhanamala. BLO MS Sansk. c.16: palm-leaf; Newari script;
13th century (?).
Guhyasamaja. See MATSUNAGA 1978.
*Guhyasamdjapanjika of Anandagarbha. SeegSang ba 'duspa'i dka'grel under
Tibetan Texts.
Guhyasamajamandalavidhi of Diparikarabhadra. Niedersaachsische Staats-
und Universitatsbibliothek, Gottingen, Cod. MS. Sanscr. 257: palm-leaf;
proto-Bengali script; incomplete, lacking the final folio. This codex, which
contains several works of which this is the last, was formerly in the Phyag dpe
lha khang chen mo of the Sa skya monastery, where it was photographed by
Rahul Sahkrtyayana (ISAACSON 2002, pp. 152-153).
Guhyasiddhi. In Guhyadi-astasiddhisahgraha, pp. 1-63 (Sanskrit); pp. 1-107
(Tibetan).
Guhyadi-astasiddhisangraha I gSang pa grub pa logs pa'i grub pa sde brgyad
bzhugs, ed. Samdhong Rinpoche and Vrajvallabh Dwivedi. Rare Buddhist
Texts Series 1. Two parts: Sanskrit text and the Tibetan translation. Sarnath,
Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1987.
Gudhapada of Advayavajra. A commentary on the Namasamglti. Royal Asiatic
Society, London, Hodgson MS 34: palm-leaf; Newari script; undated.
Gopalarajavamsavall. NAK MS 1-1583, NGMPP B18/23: palm-leaf; Newari
script. See Vajracarya and Malla 1985.
Cakrasamvaratika of Devagupta. See 'Khor lo sdompa'i sgrub thabs gnas thams
cad rgya cher grel under Tibetan Texts.
Cakrasamvarapanjika of Indrabhuti. See 'Khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po
bde mchog bsdus pa zhes bya ba'i mam par bshad under Tibetan Texts.
Cakrasamvarapanjika of Kambalapada. See Sadhananidhi.
Cakrasamvarapanjika of Jayabhadra. SUGIKI 2001.
Cakrasamvarapanjika of Durjayacandra. See Rin po che'i tshogs zhes bya ba
dka' 'grel under Tibetan Texts.
-309-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Cakrasamvarapahjika of Bhavabhatta. IASWR Film-strip MBB-1-33: palm-
leaf; Newari script (Bhujimol).
Cakrasamvarapahjika of Bhavabhatta, ed. Janardan Shastri Pandey. Rare Bud-
dhist Texts Series 26. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan
Studies, 2002.
Cakrasamvarapahjika of Bhavyakirti. See 'Khor lo sdompa'i dka' 'grel dpa' bo'i
yid du 'ong bzhes bya ba under Tibetan Texts.
Cakrasamvarapahjika of Viravajra. See Yon tan ma lus pa'i gnas zhes bya ba'i
'grel pa under Tibetan Texts.
Cakrasamvaravrtti of Sasvatavajra. See De kho na nyid mkhas pa under Ti-
betan Texts.
Candamaharosanatantra: The Candamaharosana Tantra, Chapters I-VIII. A
Critical Edition and English translation by Christopher S. George. American
Oriental Series 56. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1974.
Caturyoginisamputa. An unpublished transcript prepared by Prof. Harunaga
Isaacson from incomplete photographs of a palm-leaf manuscript taken by
Giuseppe Tucci in Tibet, preserved in Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e l'Oriente,
Rome, in a folder marked Mahakalparaj 42.
Caturvargacintamani of Hemadri, ed. Pandita Bharatacandra Siromani,
Yogesvara Bhattacarya, Kamakhyanatha Tarkaratna, Yajnesvara Smrtiratna,
and Pramathanatha Tarkabhusana. 6 volumes. Bibliotheca Indica 72. Cal-
cutta: ASB, 1873-1911.
Catusplthatantra. NAK MS 1-1078, NGMPP B26/23 ('Prakaranatantra'): palm-
leaf; Newari script; perhaps 11th century.
Catusplthanibandha of Bhavabhatta. KLKMS 134, NGMPP C 14/11: palm-leaf;
Gomol script; perhaps 13th century.
Catusplthamandalopayika of Caryavratipada. NAK MS 5-89/1, NGMPP
A1298/6 and (duplicate) B30/35: palm-leaf; Bhujimol script; second half of the
11th century.
Caryamelapakapradipa of Aryadeva, ed. Janardan Shastri Pandey. Rare Bud-
dhist Text Series 22. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,
2000.
Cihcinlkaulanam gurusamtatih. NAK MS 4-304 ('Tvaritavidhanasutra'),
NGMPP A59/13: palm-leaf; Devanagari; incomplete. Folios 1-5, 7-12, and
14 are at the beginning of the film and ff. 15-23 are at its end, with the
Tvaritavidhanasutra in the middle. Transcript prepared by Dr. Diwakar
Acharya.
CihcinTmatasarasamuccaya. NAK MS 1-767, NGMPP B157/19: paper; Newari
script; A.D. 1754.
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The Saiva Age
Chummasamketaprakasa of Niskriyanandanatha, redacted by Anantasakti. A
= Sayaji Gaekwad Central Library, Banaras Hindu University, MS CN. 491,
Ace. 328180: paper; Sarada script; lacking the beginning; B = Staatsbibliothek
zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz Hs or 11387 ('Trimsaccarcarahasyay.
paper; Sarada script; lacking the beginning and end.
Jayadrathayamala, Satka 1. NAK MS 5-4650, NGMPP B122/7: paper; De-
vanagari.
Jayadrathayamala, Satka 2. NAK MS 5-4650, NGMPP A153/3: paper; De-
vanagari.
Jayadrathayamala, Satka 3. A = NAK MS 5-722, NGMPPB 26/9; palm-leaf;
'Pala-Sena' Devanagari; probably 12th century; B =Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin,
Hs or 8535; paper; Newari script; A.D. 1667; C = Kaiser Library 728, NGMPP
C72/1; paper; Newari script; A.D. 1671; D = NAK MS 5-1975, NGMPP A152/9;
paper; Newari script; A.D. 1687; E = NAK MS 1-375, NGMPP B121/13; paper;
Newari script.
Jayadrathayamala, Satka 4. NAK MS 1-1468, NGMPP B122/4: paper; Newari
script; A.D. 1626/7.
Jayabhadra. See Cakrasamvarapanjika.
Jayakhyasamhita. NAK MS 1-49 CJayaksarasamhita'), NGMPP B29/3: palm-
leaf; Newari script; incomplete; A.D. 1395.
Jayakhyasamhita, ed. Embar Krishnamacharya. GOS 54. Baroda: Oriental
Institute, 1931.
Jayottara. NAK MS 4/82, NGMPP A1306/24: palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D.
1383. Draft edition prepared by Dr. Diwakar Acharya.
Jnanaratnavali of Jnanasivacarya. IFP MS Transcript 231.
Jnanalaksml of Sadhaka Candradatta, disciple of Ekayanacarya Narayanagarbha.
NAK MS 1-1633 CJayaksarasamhita'), NGMPP A44/7: palm-leaf; Newari
script; incomplete; A.D. 1187.
Jnanasiddhi of Indrabhuti. In Guhyadi-astasiddhisahgraha, pp. 89-157 (San-
skrit).
Jnanasiddhyagama. IFP MS Transcript 507, pp. 395-481.
Jnanodayatantra, ed. Samdhong Rinpoche and Vrajavallabh Dwivedi. Rare
Buddhist Text Series 3. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Stud-
ies, 1988.
Dakarnava: Dakarnavamahayoginitantra. NAK MS 3-293, NGMPP A138/9: pa-
per; Newari script; perhaps 13th century; some folios in a later hand; Tibetan
annotations in cursive (dbu med) script in the upper and/or lower margins of
several folios.
Tattvaratnavali of Advayavajra, ed. H. Ui in Ul 1963, pp. 1-52.
-311-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Tattvaratndvaloka of Vagisvarakirti with his own commentary -vivarana, ed.
Janardan Pandey. Sarnath: Central Institute of High Tibetan Studies, 1997.
Tattvasiddhi of Santaraksita. A = Baroda Oriental Institute, MS 56, ff.
91v4-108r4: paper: Nepalese Devanagari; B = NAK MS 5-45, NGMPP
A134/2 ('Guhyasiddhyadinagarjunapadadi'), ff. 37vl0-44v8: paper: Nepalese
Devanagari. See De kho na nyid grub pa under Tibetan Texts.
Tantrasadbhava. NAK MS 5-445, NGMPP A44/2: palm-leaf; Kutila script.
Tantrasarasamgraha (also known as the N dray anly a): Tantrasarasahgraha by
Narayana with Mantravimarsini Commentary by Svarnagrama Vasudeva, ed.
N.V.P. Unni. 2 vols. Calicut University Sanskrit Series 15-16. Calicut: Uni-
verisity of Calicut, 2002.
Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta with the commentary (-viveka) of Rajanaka Ja-
yaratha, ed. Mukund Ram Sastrl. KSTS 23, 28, 30, 35, 29, 41,47, 59, 52, 57,
58. Bombay and Srinagar, 1918-38.
Tarkabhasa of Moksakaragupta, ed. Embar Krishnamacharya. GOS 94. Bar-
oda: Oriental Institute, 1942.
Tarabhaktisudharnava of Nrsimha Thakkura, ed. Pancanana Bhattacarya.
Tantrik Texts 21. Calcutta: Sanskrit Book Depot, 1983.
Todalatantra, ed. Gopinatha Kaviraja. Tantrasamgraha, Part 2, pp. 53-94.
Yogatantra-granthamala 4. Varanasi: Varanaseya Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya,
1970.
Trayodasasatika-Kalottara. See Kalottaratantra.
Dasavataracarita of Ksemendra, ed. Durgaprasad and Kasinath Pandurang
Parab. Kavyamala 26. Bombay: Nirnaya-sagara Press, 1891.
Danasagara of Ballalasena, ed. Bhabatosh Bhattacharya. Bibliotheca Indica
274 (fasc. 1-4). Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1953-1956.
DTksadarsa of Vedajnanaguru II. IFP MS Transcripts 76 (A) and 153 (B).
Dlksavidhi. NGMPP E 1203/3: paper; Newari script; A.D. 1829.
Diptagama. IFP MS Transcript 15.
Durgapujatattva of Raghunandana Bhattacarya, ed. Satlsa Candra Siddhanta-
bhusana, Calcutta: Samskrta Sahitya Parisad, 1922.
Durgabhaktitarahgini of Vidyapati, ed. Isana Candra Sarman Calcutta:
Samskrta Sahitya Parisad, 1932.
Durjayacandra. See Rin po che'i tshogs zhes bya ba dka' grel under Tibetan
Texts.
Devagupta. See 'Khor lo sdom pa'i sgrub thabs gnas thams cad rgya cher 'grel
under Tibetan Texts.
Devamrtapancaratra. NAK MS 1/1078, NGMPP B 29/2: palm-leaf; Newari
script; probably 12th century. Transcript prepared by Dr. Diwakar Acharya.
-312-
The Saiva Age
*Devitantrasadbhavasara, a text on the cult of the Saiva vamasrotah by an
unnamed author. Gilgit Manuscript Facsimiles, 3221-3222 and 3340-3341:
birch-bark; proto-Sarada script; incomplete (the first two folios only); undated;
probably mid-6th century
Devldvyardhasatika. NAK MS 1-242, NGMPP A161/12 Paper; Newari script;
undated.
Devlpurana, ed. Panchanan Tarkaratna and Srijib Nyayaratna. Calcutta: Nav-
abharati, 1977.
Devyamata. NAK MS 1-279, NGMPP A41/15 ('Nisvasamahatantrantargatapra-
tisthatantray. palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1060.
Dvisatika-Kalottara. See Kalottaratantra.
*Nayatrayapradlpa. See Tshul gsum gyi sgron ma under Tibetan Texts.
Naresvarapariksaprakasa, the commentary of Bhatta Ramakantha on the
Naresvaraparlksa of Sadyojyotis, ed. Madhusudan Kaul Shastri. KSTS 45.
Srinagar, 1926.
Narmamala of Ksemendra: The Desopadesa & Narmamala of Kshemendra, ed.
Madhusudan Kaul Shastri. KSTS 40. Srinagar, 1927. Also Baldissera 2005.
Navaratrapujavidhi A. NGMPP E 88/11: paper; Newari script; 152 folios; San-
skrit and Newari.
Navaratrapujavidhi B. NGMPP E 2363/29: paper, thyasaphu; Newari script; 81
folios; Sanskrit and Newari.
Navasahasahkacarita of Padmagupta alias Parimala, ed. Pandit Vamana
Shastri Islampurkar. Bombay Sanskrit Series 53. Bombay: Government
Central Book Depot, 1995.
Namamantrarthavalokini, the commentary on the Manjusrinamasamgiti by
Acarya Vilasavajra, also called Visvarupa, of Ratnadvipa, maternal nephew of
Agrabodhi. A = ULC MS Add. 1708: palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1457 (?);
B = NGMPP E360/16: paper; Newari and Devanagari scripts. For a critical
edition of chapters 1-5 see Tribe 1994.
Nityakaula. NAK MS 2-226, NGMPP B 26/21: palm-leaf; badly damaged and
incomplete (ff. 2-3 and 6-13), breaking off in the sixth Patala.
Nityadisamgraha compiled by Rajanaka Taksakavarta. BORI MS 76 of 1875-
76: paper; Sarada {'Bhrhgesasamhita'); exemplar of BLO MS Stein Or. d. 43
('Nityadisamgrahabhidhanapaddhati').
Nityahnikatilaka of Srikanthasunu. NAK MS 3-384, NGMPP B 41/11: palm-
leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1153.
Nisisamcara. NAK MS 1-1606, NGMPP B 26/25: palm-leaf; Nepalese Kutila
script; probably before 1100.
Niruktabhasya of Yaska with the Niruktavivrti of Mukunda Sarma: The Niruk-
-313-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tarn ofYaska Muni [in the form of the Nighantu Bhasya ofKasyapa Prajdpati]
with the Niruktavivrti and Exhaustive Notes, ed. Mukund Lha Bakshi. Panini
Vaidika Granthamala 12. New Delhi: Panini, 1982.
Nisvasakarika. IFP MS Transcript 17.
Nisvasatattvasamhita. NAKMS 1-277: palm-leaf; Newari script; undated; prob-
ably second half of the ninth century.
Nispannayogavali of Abhayakaragupta, ed. B. Bhattacharya. GOS 109. Baroda:
Oriental Institute, 1949 (A); The Nispannayogavali by Abhayakaragupta. A
New Critical Edition of the Sanskrit Text (Revised Edition), ed. Yong-hyun
Lee. Seoul: Baegun Press, 2004 (B).
Netratantra with the commentary (Netroddyota) of Rajanaka Ksemaraja, ed.
Madhusudan Kaul Sastri. KSTS 46, 59. Bombay, 1926 and 1939.
Naimittikakarmanusamdhana of Brahmasambhu. Calcutta, ASB, MS G 4767:
palm-leaf; Newari script; incomplete; undated but probably eleventh century.
Pancakramatippani (Yogimanohara) of Munisrlbhadra, ed. Zhongxin Jiang and
Toru Tomabechi. Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft/Societe Suisse-Asie Mono-
graphie Band/Volume 23. Bern: Peter Lang, 1996.
Pancasayakamanjarl of Jyotirisvara, ed. Dhundiraja Sastri in Kamakunjalata
(A Collection of Old and Rare Works on Kama Sastra). Varanasi: Chowkhamba
Sanskrit Series Office, 1967.
Pampamahatmya, ed. as appendix 4 of FlLLIOZAT 2001.
Pahcaratraraksa of Vedantadesika, ed. M. Duraisvami Aiyangar and T. Venu-
gopalacharya. Adyar, Madras: Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1996. 3rd
edition. First published in 1942
Padmasamhita: Padma Samhita, Vol. 1, ed. Seetha Padmanabhan and R. N
Sampath. Vol. II, ed. Seetha Padmanabhan and V Varadachari. Pancaratra
Parisodhana Parisad Series 3 and 4. Madras: Pancaratra Parisodhana
Parisad, 1974 and 1982.
Paramesvara (= Pauskaraparamesvara). ULC MS Add. 1049 ('Paramesvara-
tantrd'): palm-leaf; Licchavi script; A.D. 819.
Paraskaragrhyasutra, ed. Brahmananda Tripathl. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Se-
ries 209. Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, 1991.
Pihgalamata (Jayadrathadhikara). NAK MS 3-376, NGMPP A42/2: palm-leaf;
Newari script; A.D. 1174.
Picumata (Brahmayamala). NAK MS 3-370, NGMPP A42/6: palm-leaf; Newari
script; A.D. 1052.
Purascaryarnava of King Pratapasimhadeva Shah of Nepal (r. 1775-1777),
ed. Muralidhar Jha. Vrajajivan Prachyabharati Granthamala 10. Delhi:
Chowkhamba. 1980.
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The Saiva Age
Pauskarabhasya: The Jnanapada of the Pauskaragama with the commentary
i-bhasya) of Umapatisivacarya, ed. Ambalavanavalajnanasambandhapara-
saktisvami. Cidambaram, 1925.
Pauskarasamhita, ed. Sri Yathiraja Sampath Kumara Ramanuja Muni.
Madras: A. Srinivasa Aiyangar and M.C. Thirumalachariar, 1924.
Pratyabhijnahrdaya of Ksemaraja, ed. Jagadisha Chandra Chatterji. KSTS 3.
Srinagar, 1911.
Prabandhacintamani of Meruturigacarya, ed. Ramacandra Sastri, Bombay:
Santisagarasuri, 1888.
Prabhdvakacarita of Candraprabhasuri, ed. Hirananda M. Sharma. Bombay:
Tukaram Javaji, 1909.
Prasannapadd of Candrakirti: Mulamadhyamakakdrikas (Madhyamikasutras)
de Ndgdrjuna avec la Prasannapadd commentaire de Candrakirti, ed. Louis de
la Vallee Poussin. Bibliotheca Buddhica 4. St. -Petersburg: Academie imperiale
des sciences, 1913.
Prakrtaprakasa of Vararuci with the commentary (-manoramd) of Bhamaha, ed.
E.B. Cowell. Calcutta: Punthi Pustak, 1962. 3rd edition. First published in
1853.
Prayascittasamuccaya of Hrdayasiva. ULC MS Add. 2833: palm-leaf; Newari
script; A.D. 1157/8.
Prayascittasamuccaya of Trilocanasiva. IFP MS Transcript 284, pp. 127-174.
Phetkarinltantra, ed. Gopinatha Kaviraja, In Tantrasahgraha, Part 2, pp. 161-
306. Yogatantragranthamala 4. Varanasi: Varanaseyasamskrtavisvavidyalaya,
1970.
Buddhakapalatantra. ULC MS Or. 158: palm-leaf; Kutila script; fragmentary;
A.D. 1162. In the upper left corner of lr: om vajramrtatantra \\ vajraralitantra
|| buddhakapalatantra. Contains parts of the Buddhakapalatantra and Vajra-
mrtatantra.
Brhatkdlottara. A = NAK MS 1-89, NGMPP B24/59: palm-leaf; Newari script;
undated; B = NAK MS 4-131, NGMPP A43/1: palm-leaf; Pala script; A.D. 1169.
Brhatsamhita of Varahamihira, ed. Ed. Avadhaviharl Tripathi. 2 Parts. Saras-
vati Bhavan Granthamala 97. Varanasi, 1968.
BrhannTlatantra, ed. Madhusudan Kaul. Varajivan Prachya Bharati
Granthamala 77. Varanasi: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Pratisthan, 1995.
Brhaspatismrti (reconstructed), ed. K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar. GOS 35. Bar-
oda: Oriental Institute, 1941.
Brahmayamala IFP. IFP MS Transcript 522 ('Brahmayamalakhyam matrpra-
tisthatantranC). Incomplete: contains Patalas l-51.1-29b.
Brahmayamala Triv. Trivandrum University Library, MS 1982 ('Brahma-
-315-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
yamalapratisthatantram'): Devanagari transcript; incomplete, contains
Adhyayas 1-5. 7 lb.
*Bhagavatyamnayanusarini. See bCom Idan 'das ma'i man ngag gi rjes su
'brung ba zhes bya ba'i mam par bshadpa under Tibetan Texts.
Bhavabhatta. See Cakrasamvarapanjika.
Bhavyakirti. See 'Khor lo sdom pa'i dka' grel dpa' bo'i yid du 'ong bzhes bya ba
under Tibetan Texts.
Bhrngisasamhita, ed. Anantarama Sastrl. Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1986.
Bhaisajyavastu of the Mulasarvastivadavinaya. Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. 3, part
1.
Manjusriyamulakalpa: Aryamanjusrimulakalpa, ed. P.L. Vaidya. Buddhist
Sanskrit Texts 18. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1964. Essentially a reprint
of the editio princeps of T Ganapati Sastrl, 1920, 1922, 1925 (Trivandrum
Sanskrit Series 70, 76 and 84).
Manjusrinamasamgiti. See DAVIDSON 1981.
Mandalopayika of Padmasrimitra. TUL MS 280 (New), 499 (Old): palm-leaf;
Newari script; undated.
Matahgaparamesvaragama (Vidyapada) avec le commentaire de Bhatta
Ramakantha, ed. N R. Bhatt. PIFI 56. Pondicherry: IFI, 1977;
Matangaparamesvaragama (Kriyapada, Yogapada et Caryapada) avec le
commentaire de Bhatta Ramakantha, ed. N R. Bhatt. PIFI 65. Pondicherry:
IFI, 1982.
Matasara. NAK MS 3-379, NGMPP B28/16 ('Srlvidyaplthamatasara'): palm-
leaf; Pala script; no date
Manusmrti with the commentary (Manubhasya) of Medhatithi, ed. Ganganatha
Jha. Bibliotheca Indica 256. 3 Vols. Allahabad: ASB, 1932-1939.
Manusmrti with the commentary (Manvarthamuktavalt) of Kullukabhatta, ed.
J.L. Shastri. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983.
Manthanabhairava, Kumarlkhanda. NAK MS 5-4630, NGMPP A171/11: paper:
Newari script.
Manthanabhairava, Siddhakhanda. Scans courtesy of Sam Fogg Rare Books
& Manuscripts, London: palm-leaf; Pala script; probably penned in the 12th
century.
Mayasamgraha. NAK MS 1-1537, NGMPP A31/18: palm-leaf; Newari script;
incomplete.
Mahanayaprakasa of Sitikantha (Old Kashmiri) with a Sanskrit commentary,
ed. Mukunda Ram Sastrl. KSTS 21. Bombay, 1918.
Mahabharata. For the first time critically edited by V. S. Sukthankar, with the
cooperation of S. K. Belvalkar, A. B. Gajendragadkar, V. Kane, R. D. Kar-
-316-
The Saiva Age
markar, P. L. Vaidya, S. Winternitz, R. Zimmerman, and other scholars and
illustrated by Shrimant Balasaheb Pant Pratinidhi. (Since 1943 ed. S. Bel-
valkar). 19 volumes. Poona: BORI, 1927-1959.
Mahdmanivipulavimanasupratisthitaguhyaparamarahasyakalpadharani.
Gilgit Manuscript Facsimiles, 1724-1733: birch-bark; proto-Sarada; incom-
plete (ff. 53-57 only); undated; probably mid-6th century. Transcription:
MATSUMURA Hisashi, Mikkyo Zuzo [Journal of Buddhist Iconography] 2,
1984, pp. 71-78. See also Nor bu chen po rgyas pa'i gzhal med med khang shin
tu rab tu gnas pa gsang ba'i dam pa'i gsang ba'i cho ga zhib mo'i rgyal po zhes
bya ba'i gzungs under Tibetan Texts.
Mahamayatika: Mahamayatantra with the commentary (-tikd) Gunavati of
Ratnakarasanti, ed. Samdhong Rinpoche and Vajravallabh Dwivedi. Rare
Budhist Text Series 10. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,
1992.
Mahamudratilaka. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Hs
or 8711 (uncatalogued): paper; Newari script; A.D. 1823/4.
Mahavairocandbhisambodhitantra. See rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon
par byang chub pa'i rgyud under Tibetan Texts.
Madhavakula. = Jayadrathayamala, Satka 4, ff. 117v5-135v2.
Malinlvijayavartika. HANNEDER 1998.
Malinivijayottara, ed. Madhusudana Kaula Sastri. KSTS 37. Srinagar, 1922.
Muktavall of Ratnakarasanti, a commentary (panjika) on the Hevajra, ed. Ram
Shankar Tripathi and Thakur Sain Negi. Bibliotheca Indo-Tibetica Series 48.
Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies. Cod.: NAK
MS 5-98, NGMPP A135/12: paper; Devanagarl.
Mulasarvastivadavinaya. Gilgit Manuscripts, vol. 3, 3 parts.
Mrgendra: Mrgendragama (Kriyapada et Caryapada) avec le commentaire
de Bhatta-Narayanakantha, ed. N.R. Bhatt. Publications de 1'IFI 23.
Pondicherry: IFI, 1962.
Mrgendrapaddhativyakhya of Vaktrasambhu. IFP MS Transcript 1021.
Mrtasugatiniyojana of Sunyasamadhivajra, pupil of Bhadrapada. TUL MS 307
(New), 306 (Old), ff. lvl-9r: palm-leaf; Newari script; dated in A.D. 1269. For
the Tibetan translation see Tha ma'i mchodpa'i cho ga under Tibetan Texts.
Moksakarika of Sadyojyotis with the commentary (-vrtti) of Bhatta Ramakantha.
In Astaprakaranam, ed. Vrajavallabha Dvivedi. Yogatantragranthamala 12.
Varanasi: Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, 1988.
Meghaduta of Kalidasa, ed. M.R. Kale. 7th edition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1969.
Mohacudottara. NAK MS 5-1977, NGMPP A182/2: paper; Devanagarl script;
-317-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
copied from a palm-leaf manuscript of [Valabhi era, year] 806 (= A.D. 1125/6).
Yajnavalkyasmrti with the commentary (-nibandha) of the Silahara king
Aparaditya of Korikana, ed. Hari Narayana Apte. Anandasramasamskrta-
granthavalih 46. Poona: Anandasrama, 1903.
Yajnavalkyasmrti with the commentary (Mitaksara) of Vijnanesvara, ed.
Wasudev Laxman Sastri Pansikar. Bombay: Pandurang Jawaji, 1926.
*Yoganiruttaratantrarthavatarasamgraha of Sraddhakaravarman. See rNal
'by or bla na med pa'i rgyud kyi don la 'jugs pa bsdus pa under Tibetan Texts.
Yogaratnamala. Kanha's commentary on the Hevajra. SNELLGROVE 1959.
Yoginljala. NAKMS 3-667, NGMPP A141/5 ( Yoginijalamahatantraraja): paper;
Nepalese Devanagari.
Yoginisamcara with the commentaries of Tathagataraksita and Alakakalasa, ed.
Janardan Shastri Pandey. Rare Buddhist Text Series 21. Sarnath, Varanasi:
Central Institute of Higher Buddhist Studies.
Yoginisamcara: the Saiva Yoginisamcaraprakarana incorporated in the third
Satka of the Jayadrathayamala.
Ratnavali: Nagarjuna's Ratnavali. Vol. 1: The Basic Texts (Sanskrit, Tibetan,
Chinese), ed. Michael Hahn, Bonn: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1982.
Rajataranginl of Kalhana, ed. M.A. Stein. Reprint. Delhi: Munshi Ram
Manohar Lai, 1960. First published in 1892.
Rajanakavamsaprasamsa. BLO MS Stein Or. e. 17: paper; Sarada script; A.D.
1894.
Ramacarita of Samdhyakaranandin, ed. Hara Prasad Shastri. Memoirs of the
ASB 3,1. Calcutta: ASB, 1910.
Rauravasutrasamgraha. Published in volume 1 of Rauravdgama.
Rauravagama, ed. N. R. Bhatt. 3 Vols. Publications de FIFI 18.1-3.
Pondicherry: IFI, 1961, 1972, 1988.
Laghutantratika of Vajrapani, ed. Claudio Cicuzza. Rome: Istituto Italiano per
lAfrica e l'Oriente, 2001.
Laghusamvaratantra, also known as Cakrasamvaratantra, Laghvabhidhana-
tantra, and Herukabhidhanatantra. Baroda, Maharaja Sayajirao University,
Oriental Institute, MS Ace. 13290 {'Herukavidhanatantrd'): palm-leaf; Kutila
script; incomplete; undated. Also accessible are two paper manuscripts; but
these are merely apographs of this, reproducing its lacunae. For commentaries
see under Cakrasamvaratlka, Cakrasamvarapanjika, Cakrasamvaravrtti, and
Laghutantratika .
Lokaprakasa, attributed to Ksemendra, ed. Jagaddhar Zadoo Shastri. KSTS 75.
Srinagar, 1947.
Vajrajvalodaya nama sriherukasadhanopayika of Anandagarbha. Nieder-
-318-
The Saiva Age
sachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibiliothek, Gottingen, MS Xc 14/39 (a
copy of the negatives of photographs taken of the codex that contains this
work by Rahula Sarikrtyayana when it was in the Ngor monastery in Tibet), f.
170r6-186r5: palm-leaf; Newari script; 14th century (?).
Vajradakamahatantra. TUL MS 342 (New), 326 (Old): palm-leaf: Newari script;
undated.
Vajravarahlkalpa. NAK MS 3-235, NGMPP E138/10: paper; Nepalese De-
vanagari; A.D. 1894.
Vajramrtatantra. ULC MS Or. 158 (uncatalogued): palm-leaf; Newari script;
A.D. 1162. Uncatalogued. In the upper left corner of f. lr is the following
note: om vajramrtatantra \\ *vajraralitantra {vajrarali corr. : vajrarani Cod.)
|| buddhakapalatantra. As it survives the codex contains only parts of the
Vajramrtatantra and the Buddhakapalatantra.
Vajrarali. See rDo rje a ra li under Tibetan Texts.
Vajravall A: Vajravall nama mandalopayika of Mahapandita Abhayakaragupta.
NAK MS 5-841, NGMPP B31/14: palm-leaf; Magadha script; pre-1200; some
replacement folios in Newari script and Devanagari.
Vajravall B: Vajravall: a Sanskrit Manuscript from Nepal Containing the Ritual
and Delineation of Mandalas, reproduced by Lokesh Chandra. Sata-pitaka
239. New Delhi: Sharada Rani, 1977.
Vanaratnastotrasaptaka of Aditya. HAHN 1996.
*Vapyadipratistha. Folios 893rl4-908r9 and 929v7-931v23 of an untitled and
undated paper manuscript in the Sarada script containing the Paddhatis for
various mostly non-Saiva ritual procedures, predominantly Santis, Vratas,
Pratisthas, and Danas. SORL MS 2B15, folios numbered from 785 to 1089.
Vamakesvarimatavivarana: Vamakesvarimata with the commentary (-
vivarana) of Jayaratha, ed. Madhusudan Kaul. KSTS 66. Srinagar,
1945.
Vasavadatta, ed. Fitzedward Hall. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1859.
Vasudevakalpa of the MahalaksmTsamhita. KLKMS 420, NGMPP C44/6: palm-
leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1254/5. Final colophon: iti pancaratre mahalaksmi-
samhitayam vasudevakalpam samaptam. Draft edition prepared by Dr. Di-
wakar Acharya.
Vimalaprabha: Vimalaprabhatika of Kalkin Sripundarlka on Srikdlacakra-
tantraraja by Srimanjusriyasas, ed. Vrajavallabh Dwivedi and S.S. Bahulkar.
Rare Buddhist Text Series 13. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan
Studies, 1994.
Visnudharmottara, ed. Ksemaraja Krsnadasa. Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1985.
Reprint of 1912 edition (Bombay: Venkatesvara Steam Press).
-319-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Visvaksenasamhita, ed. Lakshmi Narasimha Bhatta. Kendriya Sanskrita
Vidyapeetha Series 17. Tirupati, 1972.
Vinasikhatantra. GOUDRIAAN 1985.
Viravajra. See Yon tan ma lus pa'i gnas zhes bya ba'i 'grel pa under Tibetan
Texts.
Vlragama. IFP MS Transcript 30.
Vrddhasvacchanda: Vrddhasvacchandasamgrahatantram, ed. Prakash Pandey.
Ganganath Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha Text Series 50. Allahabad:
Ganganath Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha, [2001?].
Vrddhasvacchanda. SORL MS 1514: paper; Sarada script. This is the manu-
script used by Pandey for his edition of the text.
Saktapramoda, compiled by Raja Devanandan Singh. Reprint. Bombay: Khe-
maraja Srikrsnadasa, 1995. First published in 1890.
Sahkhayanagrhyasutra, ed. S.R. Seghal. Sri Garib Dass Oriental Series 42. 2nd
revised edition. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, 1987.
Saradatilaka of Laksmanadesika with the commentary (Padarthadarsa) of
Raghavabhatta, ed. Arthur Avalon. Tantrik Text Series 17. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1982. First published in 1933 (Calcutta: Sanskrit Press).
Sasvatavajra. See De kho na nyid mkhas pa under Tibetan Texts
Sivapujastavavyakhya, an anonymous commentary on the Sivapujastava of
Jnanasambhu, ed. KM. Subrahmanyasastri. Sivagamasarighaprakasita-
granthasankhya 19. Devakottai: Sivagamasangha, 1935.
Saivaparibhasa of Sivagrayogindra-Jnanasivacarya, ed. H.R. Rangasway Iyen-
gar and R. Ramasastri. Oriental Research Institute Series 90. Mysore: Mysore
Oriental Research Institute, 1950.
Saivagamaparibhasamanjari of Vedajnanaguru II. DAGENS 1979.
Samputodbhava. ASB, MS G 4854: palm-leaf; Magadha script; perhaps 12th
century.
Samvarodaya. TSUDA 1974.
Samvarodaya: Samvarodaya nama mandalopayika of Bhuvacarya of Ratnagiri.
TUL MS 450 (New), 296 (Old): palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1056.
Saduktikarnamrta, compiled by Sridharadasa, ed. Sures Chandra Banerji. Cal-
cutta: Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay, 1965.
Saddharmapundarlkasutra, ed. PL. Vaidya. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 6. Darb-
hanga: The Mithila Institute, 1960.
Saptasatika-Kalottara. See Kalottaratantra.
Sarvajnanottara. A = NAK MS 1-1692, NGMPP A43/12: palm-leaf; Licchavi
script; incomplete; B = IFP MS Transcript 334.
Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha. HORIUCHI 1997 and 1983.
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The Saiva Age
Sarvadurgatiparisodhanatantra. SKORUPSKI 1983.
Sarvabuddhasamayoga/Sarvabuddhasamayogadakinijalasamvara. See Sangs
rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba under Tibetan Texts.
Sarvavajrodaya of Anandagarbha. NAKMS 3-360. NGMPP A48/7 ('Sarvavajro-
dakay. palm-leaf: early Newari script; A.D. 1059.
Sarvavajrodaya of Anandagarbha: Vajradhatumahamandalopayika-sarvavajro-
daya, ed. Mikkyo Seiten Kenkyukai. Taisho daigaku sogo-bukkyo-kenkyujo
kiyo 8, 1986.
Sarvollasatantra of Sarvanandanatha, ed. Rasamohana Cakravartin with an
introduction by Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya. Calcutta: Herambacandra
Bhattacarya, 1953.
Satvatasamhita with the commentary of Alasinga Bhatta, ed. Vraja Vallabha
Dwivedi. Library Rare Texts Publication Series 6. Varanasi: Sampurnanand
Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, 1982.
Sadhananidhi of Kambalapada, a commentary {panjika) on the Herukabhidhana
(Cakrasamvaratantra). NAK MS 4-122, NGMPP B31/20: palm-leaf; Newari
script; undated.
Sadhanamala, ed. Benoytosh Bhattacharya. GOS 41. 2 vols. Baroda: Oriental
Institute, 1968.
Sambapancasika with the commentary of Ksemaraja, ed. Durgaprasad and
Kasinath Pandurang Parab. Kavyamala 13. Bombay: Nirnayasagara Press,
1889.
Sardhatrisatikalottara with the commentaty of Bhatta Ramakantha, ed. N R.
Bhatt. Publications de 1'IFI 61. Pondicherry: IFP, 1979.
SiddhayogesvarTmata. See TORZSOK 1999.
Siddhantapaddhati of Jnanasiva. IFP MS Transcript 507, pp. 374-394.
Siddhantasekhara of Visvanatha, ed. K. Sitarama Somayajin and Siva Sri
Talakadu Agamika Krsnadiksita. Manonmanigranthamala 20. Mysore: K.
Sitarama Somayajin, 1971.
Siddhantasamuccaya of Trilocanasiva. IFP MS Transcript 206, pp. 56-111.
Siddhantasarapaddhati of Maharajadhiraja Bhojadeva (r. c. 1018-1060). A =
NAK MS 1-1363, NGMPP B28/29: palm-leaf; old Newari script; A.D. 1077/8; B
= NAK MS 5-743, NGMPP B28/19: palm-leaf; old Newari script; A.D. 1111/2.
Siddhantasaravalivyakhya of Anantasambhu. Published in five parts in the
Bulletin of the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library Madras: Vol.
17.1, pp. 29-68 (ed. A. A. Ramanathan and T. H. Viswanathan); Vols. 17.2,
pp. 1-48; 18.1, pp. 1-64 and 19.1, pp. 53-84 (ed. R. K. Parthasarathi and
T H. Viswanathan); Vol. 19.2 pp. 1-48 and Vol. 20.2, pp. 49-71 (ed. T H.
Viswanathan, P. G. Seetharaman and R. Ganesan). Madras, 1965-1968.
-321-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Subhasitaratnakosa compiled by Vidyakara, ed. D.D. Kosambi and V.V.
Gokhale. Harvard Oriental Series 42. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, 1957.
Subhasitasamgraha: Subhasita-Samgraha. An Anthology of Extracts from Bud-
dhist Works Compiled by an Unknown Author to Illustrate the Doctrines of
Scholastic and of Mystic (Tantrik) Buddhism, ed. Cecil Bendall. he Museon 4,
1903, pp. 373-403 (Part 1), and 4, 1904, pp. 5-46 (Part 2).
Suksmdgama. IFP MS Transcript 1003.
Sekanirdesapanjika of Ramapala. ULC MS Or. 149: palm-leaf; Pala script.
A critical edition of the text is being prepared for publication by Professors
Harunaga Isaacson and Francesco Sferra, which they have kindly allowed me
to consult.
Somasambhupaddhati (the Kriyakdndakramavali of Somasambhu). BRUNNER
1963, 1968, 1977, 1998.
Somasambhupaddhativyakhya of Trilocanasiva. IFP MS Transcripts 457 and
170.
Saurasamhita. Unpublished edition prepared by Dr. Diwakar Acharya.
Skandapurana-Ambikdkhanda. NAK MS 2-229, NGMPP Bll/4: palm-leaf; Lic-
chavi script; A.D. 810.
Skandapurana-Ambikdkhanda: Skandapuranasya Ambikakhandah, ed.
Krsnaprasada Bhattarai. Mahendraratnagranthamala 2. Kathmandu,
1988.
Skandapurana-Ambikdkhanda. Adhyayas 1-25. ADRIAENSEN, BARKER, and
Isaacson 1998.
Sthitisamasa of Sahajavajra. NAK MS 5-139, NGMPP B24/4 ('Kosakarika'):
palm-leaf; 14 folios; incomplete, lacking folios 3, 9, 13, 15, and 19; Newari
script; perhaps 13th century. Mantranaya section: ff. Hr3-18v5.
Svacchandatantra with the commentary (Svacchandoddyota) of Rajanaka
Ksemaraja, ed. Madhusudan Kaul Sastri. KSTS 31, 38, 44, 48, 51, 53, 56.
Bombay, 1921-35.
Svacchandalalitabhairavatantra. NAK MS 1-224, NGMPP B28/18: palm-leaf;
Newari script; A.D. 1067/8.
. IFP MS Transcript 507, pp. 1-356.
Svayambhuva. IFP MS Transcript 133.
Svayambhuvapancaratra. NAK MS 1-1648 ('Pancaratrafprakirna]'), NGMPP
A54/9: palm-leaf; Newari script; A.D. 1027. Patala colophons: iti pancaratre
mahajnane . . . , iti pancaratre, and iti pancaratre svayambhuve .... Unpub-
lished transcript prepared by Dr. Diwakar Acharya.
Svayambhuvasutrasamgraha: srisaivdgame svdyambhuvasutrasahgrahah (sva-
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The Saiva Age
yambhuvd maharsibhya uddistah), ed. Verikatasubrahmanyasastri, Mysore,
1937.
Svdyambhuvasutrasamgraha. IFP MS Transcript 39. An inflated south-Indian
redaction.
Haracaritacintdmani of Rajanaka Jayadratha, ed. Pandita Sivadatta and
Kasinath Pandurang Parab. Kavyamala 61. Bombay, 1897.
Haracaritacintdmani of Rajanaka Jayadratha. A = SORL MS 1547: paper:
Sarada script and Devanagari; B = SORL MS 1510: paper: Sarada; C = SORL
MS 599: paper: Kashmirian Devanagari.
Hitopadesa of Narayana, ed. M.R. Kale. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985.
Reprint of 6th edition.
Herukasddhana of Kalyanagarbha. Sddhanamdld, no. 242.
Herukasddhana of Humkaravajra. See He ru ka'i grub pa'i thabs under Tibetan
Texts.
Herukdbhyudaya. See Khrag 'thung mngon par 'byung ba under Tibetan Texts.
Herukdbhyudayapanjikd (Katipaydksard) of Kumaracandra, ed. in Dhlh 27,
pp. 148-170.
Herukdbhyudayapanjikd (Katipaydksard) of Kumaracandra. KLK MS 229,
NGMPP C26/2 {'Herukdbhyudayamahdyoginltantray. palm-leaf; proto-
Bengali script.
Hevajratantra. SNELLGROVE 1959.
Hevajratantrapinddrthatlkd of Vajragarbha. KLK MS 128, NGMPP C14/6:
palm-leaf; Magadha script; copied in Vikramasilamahavihara, therefore
before c. 1200.
Javanese Texts
Arjunawijaya of Mpu Tantular. Old Javanese. SUPOMO 1977.
Kunjarakarna of Mpu Dusun. Old Javanese. TEEUW and ROBSON 1981.
Ganapatitattwa. Sanskrit with an Old Javanese commentary. SlNGHAL 1958.
Jndnasiddhdnta. Sanskrit with an Old Javanese commentary. SOEBADIO 1971.
Desawarnana. = Ndgarakrtdgama.
Ndgarakrtdgama of Mpu Prapanca. Old Javanese. PlGEAUD 1960-1963.
Mahdjndna. Sanskrit with an Old Javanese commentary. SlNGHAL 1962.
Wrhaspatitattwa. Sanskrit with an Old Javanese commentary. SlNGHAL 1957.
Sutasoma of Mpu Tantular. Old Javanese. Santoso 1975.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Tibetan Texts
Khrag 'thung mngonpar 'byung ba. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ga, ff. lv-33v. Trans-
lation by Advayavajra and Chings yon tan 'bar of the Herukabhyudayamaha-
yoginltantra.
mKha' gro ma'i dra ba'i rdo rje gur rgyud. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. nga, ff. 30r-65v
(D); sTog Palace Kanjur, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ca, ff. 148v-202r 94, p. 369, 11. 5-6
(T). Translation by Gayadhara and Sa kya ye ses ('Brog mi) of the Dakinlvajra-
panjaratantra.
'Khor lo sdom pa'i dka' 'grel dpa' bo'i yid du 'ong bzhes bya ba. DT, Rgyud 'grel,
vol. ma, ff. lv-41r. Translation by Dharmasribhadra and Rin chen bzang po of
Bhavyakirti's commentary (*Vlramanoramd) on the Laghusamvaratantra.
'Khor lo sdom pa'i rgyud kyi rgyal po bde mchog bsdus pa zhes bya ba'i mam
par bshad. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. tsa, ff. lv-119v Translation of Indrabhuti's
commentary (*Samvarasamuccayah) on the Laghusamvaratantra. Transla-
tors not recorded.
'Khor lo sdom pa'i sgrub thabs gnas thams cad rgya cher 'grel. DT, Rgyud 'grel,
vol. ma, ff. 69r-156v Translation of Devagupta's commentary on the Laghu-
samvaratantra. Translators not recorded.
Grub thob brgyad bcu rtsa bzhi'i lo rgyus. Peking Tenjur, Rgyud 'grel, vol. lu,
lv-68r (A); Grub thob brgyad bcu rtsa bzhi'i chos skor, New Delhi: Chopel
Legdan, 1973, reprinted in Robinson 1979, pp. 312-391 (B). Biographies
of the Eight-four Siddhas, which the Tangut monk Smon grub shes rab
claims to have heard from an Indian Guru of Tsam pa rna (B : tsam pa ra A
[Champaran in N-W Bihar]) named Mi 'jigs sbyin pa dpal (AbhayadattasrI)
and then rendered into Tibetan.
rGya gar chos 'byung of Taranatha:, ed. Anton Schiefner [Tdrandthae de Doc-
trinae Buddhicae in India Propagatione Narratio. Contextum tibeticum e cod-
icibus petropolitanis edidit Antonius Schiefner]. St. Petersburg: Academia
Scientiarum Petropolitana, 1868.
rGyud spyi. LESSING and WAYMAN 1980.
mNgon brjod rgyud bla ma. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ka, ff. 247r-370r. Translation
by Diparikarasrijnana and Rin chen bzang po of the Abhidhanottaratantra,
revised first by Jhanasri and Khyung po chos kyi brtson 'grus and later by
Ananda and Lo chung.
bCom Idan 'das ma'i man ngag gi rjes su 'brung ba zhes bya ba'i mam par
bshad pa. DT, Mdo, vol. ba, ff. lv-320r. Translation by Alarikakadeva
and Tshul khrims 'byung gnas sbas (early 12th century) of the *Bhaga-
vatyamnayanusarini nama vydkhya, a commentary on the Astasahasrika
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The Saiva Age
Prajhdpdramitd composed during the reign of Ramapala (c. 1072-1126) by
an author who identifies himself only as a resident of the Rajajagaddala
monastery (rgyal po dza ga ta la gnas pa).
Tha ma'i mchod pa'i cho ga (*Antestividhi). DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. phi, ff. 35r-
38r. Translation by Phyogs dbang dga' byed and Prajnakirti of the Mrtasugati-
niyojana of Sunyasamadhivajra.
De kho na nyid mkhas pa. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. ma ff. 253r-352r. Translation by
Rin chen grub of the *Tattvavisarada, Sasvatavajra's commentary (-vrtti) on
the Laghusamvara. The Skt. title given at the beginning of the translation is
srltattvavisada nama srisamvaravrtti.
De kho na nyid grub pa: Dekho nanyidgrub pa zhes bya ba'i rab tubyedpa. DT,
Rgyud 'grel, vol. tsu ff. 26v-39r. Translation by Diparikarasrijiiana and Rin
chen bzang po, revised by Kumarakalasa and Sakya 'od, of the Tattvasiddhi
(Tattvasiddhinama prakaranam) of Santaraksita.
bDe mchog nyung ngu. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ka, ff. 213r-246v Translation by
Padmakara and Rin chen bzang po, revised by Prajnakirti and Mar pa Chos
kyi grags pa, of the Laghusamvaratantra.
rDo rje a ra li: rDo rje a ra li zhes bya ba'i rgyud kyi rgyal po chenpo. DK, Rgyud
'bum, vol. nga, ff. 171r-176r. Translation by Gayadhara and Sa kya ye shes
('Brog mi) of the Vajraralimahatantraraja.
rDo rje mkha' 'gro: rgyud kyi rgyal po chenpo dpal rdo rje mkha' 'gro. DK, Rgyud
'bum, vol. kha, ff.lr-125r. Translation by Gayadhara and 'Gos lhas btsas of the
Vajradakamahatantraraja .
rDo rje snying po rgyan gyi rgyud. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. cha, ff. 36r-58v Trans-
lation by Kamalagupta and Lha ye shes rgyal mtshn of the Vajrahrdayalam-
karatantra.
rDo rje phreng ba: rNal 'by or chen po'i rgyud dpal rdo rje phreng ba mngon par
brjodpa rgyud thams cad kyi snying po gsang ba mam par phye ba. DK, Rgyud
'bum, vol. ca, ff. 208r-277v Translation by Sujanasrijnana and Zhi ba 'od of
the Vajramalamahayogatantra.
Nor bu chen po rgyas pa'i gzhal med med khang shin tu rab tu gnas pa gsang
ba'i dam pa'i gsang ba'i cho ga zhib mo'i rgyal po zhes bya ba'i gzungs. DK,
Rgyud 'bum, vol. da, ff. 286v-309r. Translation by Vidyakaraprabha and dPal
gyi lhun po, revised by Vidyakaraprabha and dPal brtsegs, of the Mahamani-
vipulavimanasupratisthitaguhyaparamarahasyakalpadharanl.
rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud: mam par
snang mdzad chen po mngon par rdzogs par byang chub pa mam par sprul pa
byin gyis rlob pa shin tu rgyas pa mdo sde'i dbang po'i rgyal po zhes bya ba'i
chos kyi mam grangs. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. tha, ff. 151v-260r. Translation
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
by Silendrabodhi and Dpal brtsegs of the Mahavairocanabhisambodhitantra
(*Mahdvairocandbhisambodhivikurvitddhisthdnavaipulyasutrendrarajand-
madharmaparyaya).
rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub pa'i rgyud chen po'i 'grel
of Sangs rgyas gsang ba (*Buddhaguhya). DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. nyu, f. 65r-Tu,
f. 116r. Revised translation by Gzhon nu dpal of Buddhaguhya's commentary
on the Mahavairocanabhisambodhitantra.
rNal 'byorbla named pa'i rgyud kyi don la 'jugs pa bsdus pa. DT, Rgyud 'grel,
vol. tsu, ff. 104v-115r. Translation by Sraddhakaravarman and Rin chen
bzang po of the former's *Yoganiruttaratantrarthdvatdrasamgraha.
rNal 'byor ma bzhi'i kha sbyor rgyud. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. kha, ff. 44v-52v
Translation by Chings yon tan of the Caturyoginlsamputatantra.
Byang chub lam gyi sgron ma'i dka' 'grel of Diparikarasrijnana. SHERBURNE
2003.
Tshul gsum gyi sgron ma. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. tsu, ff. 6v-26v Translation
by Padmakaravarman and Rin chen bzang po of the *Nayatrayapradlpa of
Tripitakamala (Tripitakamalla?).
Yon tan ma lus pa'i gnas zhes bya ba'i 'grel pa. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. ma, ff. 156v-
207r. Translation by Chos skyong and Rin chen grags of Viravajra's commen-
tary on the Laghusamvara.
Ri gi a ra li'i rgyud. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. nga ff. 176r-180v Translation by
Gayadhara and Sha kya ye shes of the Rigi-dralitantra.
Rinpo che'i tshogs zhes bya ba dka' 'grel. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. ba, ff. 246v-315r.
Translation by Taraklasu (sic; Tarakalasa?) and the Tibetan Gunasri of Dur-
jayacandra's commentary on the Laghusamvara.
Zhib mo rdo rje. STEARNS 2001.
Sangs rgyas thams cad mnyam par sbyor ba: dpal sangs rgyas thams cad
mnyam par sbyor ba mkha' 'gro ma sgyu ma bde mchog ces bya ba'i rgyud phyi
ma. DK, Rgyud 'bum, vol. ka, ff. 151r-193r. Translation of the Sarvabuddha-
samdyoga (Sarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvarandmottaratantra). No
translators recorded, but said to be the work of the Tibetan Lha rin po che; cf.
Toh. 1659, 1664-1669, 1671-1672, 1674, and 1677.
gSang ba 'dus pa'i dka' grel. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. bi, ff. lv-81r. Translation by
Vijayasridhara and Rin chen bzang po, revised by Sraddhakaravarman, of the
commentary by Anandagarbha on the Guhyasamdja (*Guhyasamdjapanjikd).
He ru ka'i sgrub pa'i thabs. DT, Rgyud 'grel, vol. la, ff. 200r-208r. Translation by
Vidyakarasimha and Lha rin po che of the Herukasddhana of Hum mdzad rdo
rje (Humkaravajra).
-326-
The Saiva Age
South and Southeast Asian Inscriptions
Acharya, Diwakar. 1977 (Vikramasamvat 2054). Madhyakalma nepal aeka
yogi sarikaracarya hoinan. Rtambhara 2,2, pp. 76-96. Cited here for its
critical edition of the stone inscription of Anandadeva, A.D. 1143/4.
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General, ASI. Reprint.
BERGAIGNE, Abel. 1893. Inscriptions sanscrites de Campa et Cambodge.
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Conventions in the Footnotes
Where I have rejected the reading of a text-edition, inscription, or manu-
script, I have substituted my proposed reading and marked the point at which it
begins with a superscript asterisk. Its end is indicated by the beginning of the
parenthesis that follows. In that I first state whether I judge the proposed read-
ing to be a simple correction (corr.), an emendation (em.), a conjecture (conj.), or,
in one case, a diagnostic conjecture (diagn. conj.). By the last I mean a conjecture
that restores what I take to be the intended meaning of the author while recog-
nizing that an alternative wording is possible. I maintain no clear-cut distinction
between corrections, emendations, and conjectures. I intend thereby only to dis-
tinguish approximately between three levels of decreasing obviousness. Where
the reading adopted is my own proposal no further information is added. Where
it has been proposed by another I have given the surname of the proposer af-
ter the abbreviation (e.g. em. MlRASHl). These abbeviations, or abbreviations
followed by a name, are followed by a single space, a colon, and a single space,
after which I have given the reading that I have rejected. That is followed by an
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The Saiva Age
abbreviation that indicates whether the source is the edition of the text (Ed.) or
inscription (Ep.) listed in the bibliography, or the manuscript (Cod.) listed in the
same. Where more than one manuscript has been cited, they are distinguished
by the sigla assigned in the same. When I have given a translation of a passage
in which I have rejected a reading or readings I indicate this in the translation
only in the case of what I have classified as conjectures, e.g. '*Vidyesvaras on
the northern altar (conj.)'. Any testimonium is given in square brackets after
the reading that it supports. In a few cases in which I have judged a word to
have been lost I have inserted it between angle brackets (e.g. <ca>) and where
I have judged that insertion to be less than certain I have followed it with a
question mark (e.g. <svadharma?>). In my translations I have marked the cor-
responding words in the same way. Where I can offer no cure but judge that the
intended meaning can be deduced from the context I have given that meaning
in my translation enclosed between a superscript asterisk and a question mark
in parenthesis. Where I judge a reading to be corrupt but can offer no cure even
on the level of meaning alone I have marked the beginning of the reading with
a superscript asterisk followed by a question mark in parenthesis, and marked
the corresponding place in my translation with a superscript asterisk followed
by three dots and a question mark in parentheses. In general I have standard-
ized the Sandhi and orthography of the Sanskrit in all citations, whether from
texts or inscriptions. All translations of the text -passages that I have cited are
my own.
All Souls College, Oxford
-349-
Who is Candesa ?
Dominic GOODALL
Introduction
It has long been commonly supposed that Candesvara is a deity exclusively of
the Saiva Siddhanta of whom sculptural representations are found only in the
Tamil-speaking South of India. But this is far from the truth: from looking at
various sorts of evidence — inscriptions from Nepal, Cambodia and the Tamil-
speaking South, Sanskrit Saiddhantika texts, Tamil devotional hymns and a va-
riety of sculpted images going back to the fourth century — we find that it is a
rather jumbled picture of this figure that emerges. This might be because he is
an amalgam of more than one personage, or it might be that a single figure has
evolved over the centuries and been viewed differently by the followers of the re-
ligious traditions in which he played a role. (Some might even say, after reading
further, that there has never quite been one Candesvara, even though there are
momentary points of contact between the various figures examined in this arti-
cle.) We find Candesvara (also referred to as Candikesvara, Candisa, Canda and,
in Tamil sources, as Canti and Tanti) variously treated as a guardian to Saiva
shrines, as a warrior leader of ganas, as the consumer of offerings that have been
made to Siva, as the punisher of the transgressions of Saiva initiates, as Siva's
agent in property transactions, as the transmitter of Saiva knowledge and as a
swper-bhakta who severed his own father's legs because of his father's impiety.
Some evidence suggests that Candesvara is a form of Siva or a manifestation of
his anger, but other evidence presents him as agana, as Siva's chief devotee or
as his principal servant.
In this paper, I should like at least to touch upon the various ritual func-
tions with which Candesvara is associated and the various identities attributed
to him. Candesa is a figure that has engaged the interest of a range of very dif-
ferent scholars — I have gradually discovered that quite a number of articles has
appeared devoted to one or other aspect of the deity: Brunner 1969, Dhaky
1970, Gupta 1976, Edholm 1984, Kalidos 1988, Edholm 1998, and, most
recently, Acharya 2005 — and it now seems to me to be time to synthesise some
of these findings (for some of the above authors appear to have been working in
ignorance of each other), as well as to add a few ideas of my own. But it is not
only my own ideas that I intend to add. In fact I would be hard pressed to state
which ideas on this subject, if any, might be truly my own, for I have over the last
few years had the good fortune to meet a diverse and numerous group of scholars
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
who have been remarkably eager to discuss Candesa with me. 1 The result is that
this article is very different indeed from the paper delivered in Tokyo, at the kind
invitation of Professor Shingo ElNOO, in October 2005. If it is not engaging to
read, it is certainly not the fault of the subject matter, which is rich enough to
merit a richly illustrated book rather than a mere article.
1 The first of these was Dr. Erik af Edholm, who came and presented something of
his research to the Saiva reading group in Pondicherry several years ago, at a time
when all I knew about Candesa was what I had read in Saiddhantika texts. Fur-
ther discussion took place with the members of that same reading group, together
with whom I worked to produce a critical edition of Aghorasiva's Pancavaranastava,
which contains a disproportionately long note on Candesa (some of the material in
this article is repeated from annotation to the Pancavaranastava: GOODALL et al.
2005:184-190). While this was being prepared, I had the benefit of numerous long
exchanges with the members of the EFEO's project on Pallava iconography, namely
Dr. Charlotte Schmid, whose longest e-mail message on Candesa runs to eight
tightly argued A4 pages, Dr. Valerie Gillet and Emmanuel Francis (Universite
Catholique de Louvain), who generously furnished me with dozens of photographs.
All this stimulus would already have given me the basis for a substantial article.
But it happened that in 2004 Dr. Diwakar ACHARYA (Kyoto University) sent me
a copy of his then unpublished article on the Mathura pillar inscription for com-
ments and I discovered that he too was writing on the same theme, but focussing
on data that I had known nothing about. When it was announced that I would
be speaking on Candesa at Professor ElNOO's Tantric Workshop in Tokyo in 2005,
I received an eager message from Charlotte de de Percin-Sermet, a student at
Paris IV currently producing a doctorate about Cola-period images of Candesa, with
whom further useful exchanges took place. And while preparing the paper, a flood
of helpful suggestions reached me from Professor Leslie Orr. Finally, the reac-
tions to the paper when delivered in Tokyo made me change, once again, quite a
number of my ideas about the subject. These reactions came principally from Dr.
Kimiaki Tanaka, who suggested an unsuspected Buddhist connection, and then,
somewhat later, from Professor Alexis SANDERSON (All Souls, Oxford). I was also
able to benefit from the advice of Professor Gerdi Gerschheimer on the Khmer
inscriptions to which I refer to below, as well as on other inscriptions, to which,
in consequence of his advice, I realised that it would be prudent not to refer. For
the photographs that are not my own or those of other acknowledged individuals,
I have relied on the photo-library of the Institut francais de Pondichery, for access
to which I am grateful for the enthusiastic assistance of N. Murugesan and K.
Ramesh Kumar. Aside from all the above, I must mention N. Ramaswamy, also
known as Babu, chauffeur of the EFEO, whose tireless explorations in Tamil Nadu
have since 2003 been bringing to my attention unusual Candesas that I could never
otherwise have known about, the first of which was the arresting image from the
ruined shrine of Satyamangalam that lies on the Tiruvannamalai-Tindivanam road
(Plate 38).
Finally, in the weeks before submitting the article, I received helpful comments,
data and suggestions, as well as corrections of various orders of magnitude, from the
following (in alphabetical order): Dr. Diwakar ACHARYA, Andrea Acri, Professor
Hans Barker, Dr. Peter Bisschop, Professor Shingo Einoo, Emmanuel Francis,
Professor Kei Kataoka, Professor Leslie Orr, and Dr. Charlotte Schmid.
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Who is Candesa ?
Introducing the three best known types of South Indian images
1. Candesanugrahamurti
On the South side of the celebrated early eleventh-century temple at Garigaik-
konta-colapuram, near Tanjore in the Tamil-speaking South of India, is a well-
known image of Siva, with Parvati beside him, shown in the act of garlanding
the headdress of the bowed head of a figure seated below who respectfully presses
his palms together in anjali (see Plate 1). This is an example of what several
South Indian temple scriptures 2 refer to as candesanugrahamurti? Candesa,
often called Canti in Tamil poetry, is one of the 63 Saiva saints or Nayanmars,
who, according to the legend narrated by the twelfth-century Periyapuranam of
Cekkilar, was a brahmin cowherd boy called Vicarasarman who worshipped Siva
in sand-lingas by pouring milk over them. His father, tipped off by brahmins
who thought milk was being wasted, observed him, was appalled at the waste of
milk, beat his son and kicked at one of the pots of milk. To punish this impiety to-
wards Siva, Vicarasarman swiped at his father's legs with his cow-herding stick,
which promptly transformed itself into an axe, and cut his father's legs off. For
this great and fiercesome act of devotion, Siva rewarded him by adopting him as
his supreme devotee, giving him the name Candesa, and adorning him with his
ornaments and garlands. 4 The whole story can be found depicted together, begin-
2 I use this expression to refer to a group of tantras of the Saivasiddhanta for which no
firm evidence confirms their existence before the twelfth century, which are trans-
mitted only in South Indian sources, and which focus on describing what happens
in a South Indian temple. (Cf. the remarks of SANDERSON 2004:444-5.) Among the
best known examples are the Purva- and Uttara-Kdmika, the Purva- and Uttara-
Kdrana, the Ajita and the so-called kriydpdda of the Raurava. For a fuller gen-
eral account of the Saiddhantika canon and the division between, on the one hand,
the scriptures known to the tenth-century Kashmirian thinker Ramakantha and
Aghorasiva, his South Indian epigone, and, on the other hand, the post-twelfth-
century temple scriptures, see the essay 'Explanatory remarks about the Saiva
Siddhanta and its treatment in modern secondary literature', printed as the pref-
ace to the edition of the Pardkhyatantra (GOODALL 2004:xiii-xxxiv). For more on
the relative dating within the pre-tenth-century corpus, see footnote 148 on p. 410
below.
3 Apart from the passages quoted by Rao (1914) on p. 105-7 of Appendix B of Volume
II, part II, there are further accounts to be found in Uttarakdrana 64:2c-9 and in
the Isdnasivagurudevapaddhati, kriydpdda 43:71c-72:
umdsahitavat kurydc canddnugrahakam param
varado daksinakaras candesasirasitarah
krtdnjaliputas canda dsino 'dhah sivdsandt*
*sivasanat ] conj.; sivasanah Ed.
Rao (1914) recounts a version of the legend and discusses other images in Volume
II, part I, pp. 205-9.
4 Periyapuranam 1256:
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ning with the worship with milk and culminating with Siva's adorning Candesa
with his garland, in the three largest Cola-period temples, 5 and there are several
less well known examples of the Cola period elsewhere. 6
Plate 1. Candesanugrahamurti from the temple at Gangaikondacholapuram
(Jayamkondam Taluk, Tanjore Dt.): Siva, whose back hands bear an axe and
a deer, holds Canda's chignon and puts his own garland upon it. Parvati sits
behind him. Candesa sit-kneels and, clasping his hands in ahjali, leans forward
in deference. As an earring he wears a flower.
Now although this full version of the story is first clear from pictorial represen-
tations of the early eleventh century, it seems to accord with the allusions to the
story that are made by the Tamil poets of the Tevaram, who are also among the
63 Nayanmar, and so the story may be as much as four or five centuries earlier. 7
cintum polutil atu nokkun ciruvar iraiyir riyonait
tantai-y-enave-y-arintavan ran ralkal cintun takutiyinan
muntai maruhku kitanta kol etuttarkk' atuve muraimaiyinal
vantu maluvayita-v-erintar; man mel vilntan maraiyon um.
While [the milk] was spilling, the child watching it realised that his father was
wicked towards God, [and] because his [father's] feet deserved [punishment for]
spilling [the milk], he took the stick that was lying just in front of him — that
same [stick] went and transformed for him as he took it, by [divine] means, into
an axe — and he hurled it. And the brahmin fell upon the ground.
5 For the depicitions at Gangaikondacholapuram and in the Rajarajesvara in Tanjore,
see Pichard et al. 1994, photographs 169-72 and for those at the Airavatesvara
shrine (in an upper frieze in bas-relief on the South side of the main shrine) in
Darasuram, see L'Hernault 1987:100 and photo 73.20 or Ladrech 2007, images
DSC_6230.jpg and DSC_6232.jpg.
6 One is mentioned, e.g., by Schmid 2005:61.
7 Three examples from the Tevaram should suffice: 1.106:5ab (of Nanacampantar):
en ticaiyor makila elil malai-y-um ponakam-um pantu
canti tola alittan avan talum itam vinavil. . .
If you ask about the place where, in olden times, while the Lords of the eight
directions rejoiced, and Candesvara prayed for beautiful garlands and food, He
who gave, bending down [to give them(?) resides]. . .
And 7.65:2a (of Cuntarar):
anikol atai am pun manimalai amutuceyta amutam peru canti. . . .
'Candesvara, who receives garlands of jewels and beautiful gold and garments
that [He] had taken and worn, [and who receives] the food offering (amutu) which
has been made nectar [by having been eaten by Him], . . . '
And finally 7.16.3 (of Cuntarar):
intaimalar kontu, manal ilihkam atu iyarri,
inattu avin pal atta, itariya tataiyait tal
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Who is Candesa ?
Furthermore, there is a narrative panel in niche 35 of the inner prdkdra of
the Kailasanatha temple in Kancheepuram that belongs to the end of the seventh
or beginning of the eighth century which appears to show a large, four-armed
Siva with a garland-like mass dangling above him, a smaller two-armed Candesa
with an axe leaning over one shoulder, perhaps about to be garlanded, and below
him perhaps his father, semi-recumbent and gesticulating with distress below
him on the ground, with one of his legs missing or at least not visible. 8
tuntam itu canti ati antar tolutu ettat
totarntu avanaip panikonta vitahkanatu ur vinavil —
mantapam-um kopuram-um malikai culikai-y-um,
marai oliyum vilavu oliyum maruku niraivu eyti,
kantavarkal manam kavarum puntarikap poykaik
karikaiyar kutaintu atum kalayanallurkdn e.
If you ask about the place of the beautiful [Lord] {vitahkanatu) who sought
out (totarntu) and made into his servant Canti (avanai) — while the gods (antar)
praised Canti's feet — [Canti] who after taking lotus-blossoms (intaimalar), fash-
ioning sand into a lihga, bathing [it] (dtp) with cow's milk from the herd, had cut
to pieces (tuntam itu) [his] father's legs that had kicked [the milk pots?],
it is in Kalayanallur, where there are mandapas, towers, and palace terraces,
which rings with the Vedas, which is full of the bustle and sound of festivals,
where beauties (karikaiyar) dive (kutaintu) and bathe (atum) in lotus-ponds that
captivate the minds of those who see them.
I have given references to the poetry of Nanacampantar (Jnanasambandha) and
Cundarar (Sundara), but references in the poetry of Appar could be supplied too,
for which see Nagaswamy 1989:212.
8 The scene has been identified as a representation of Candesa's moment of grace by
Rao (1941) Volume I, part II, pp. 208-9. Dr. Charlotte Schmid has pointed out to
me that it is possible that another niche on the North side of the prdkdra, niche
41, shows the moment in which Candesa is about to be garlanded, by Siva, but
as she has also pointed out, it is not unlikely that it should be some other figure
receiving a garland, particularly since there are scenes intervening between niches
35 and 41. See also Gillet 2007:36, who supplies an illustration of the scene
(Fig. 13) and suggests that it rather shows Ravana before Siva. Niches 35 and 41
are both so covered with patchy stucco that they cannot be used as Pallava-period
testimony for details of ornament or the like. Earlier still, on a monument from
the beginning of the seventh century, a slightly different scene has been identified
as the moment of Candesa's grace: in niche 15 of the second tola of the Northern
face of the so-called Dharmaraja Ratha at Mahabalipuram, a four-armed Siva is
seen embracing a two armed figure with a headdress of hanging matted locks (jatd-
bhdra) such as is typical of Candesa (but also of other Saiva forms in the Pallava
repertoire, such as Bhiksatana and 'Daksinamurti'). Both are standing, but the
two armed figure's entire body expresses deference and devotion, most obviously by
being slightly stooped with the head bowed towards Siva. No axe is to be seen. The
identification is proposed by Srinivasan (1975:25 and 80 and Plate XlVa), who
points out that it is closely parallel to a scene in the same place that shows Visnu
with a figure who could be regarded as Visnu's principal devotee, namely Garuda
(Srinivasan 1975, Plate XIVc).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
This myth was the starting point of my lecture, for a colleague of mine, Dr.
Charlotte Schmid, asked me how it came about that only one of the 63 South In-
dian Saints, namely Candesvara, came to be prominently represented in almost
all Saiva temples all over the Tamil-speaking South and from a very early date.
Others too have remarked on this oddity: 'Alone of the Nayanars Candesvara
receives a niche of his own on the outside of the garbhagrha' (SMITH 1996:210).
It seems often to be tacitly or explicitly assumed that Candesvara was and has
largely remained a South Indian figure whose cult has been integrated into the
Saiva Siddhanta and that he is a divinised devotee in origin. It seems to me that
he may in fact not be South Indian in origin and that the South Indian story,
although it may appear to be among the earliest attestations to the existence of
a Candesvara figure, is in fact not our starting point but almost certainly an ae-
tiological myth intended to explain Candesvara's principal function in ritual. In
other words, the story was, I suspect, composed in order to account for the exis-
tence of a fierce Saiva ancillary deity who receives whatever has been offered to
Siva and is left over (ucchista), thereby being rendered dangerously empowered.
2. The seated, axe-bearing receiver of nirmdlya
There may be several temples which show the narrative panel we have discussed,
but it is perhaps not one that commands instant recognition. 9 But there is a
representation of Candesvara that is to be found in the vast majority of Saiva
temples in the Tamil-speaking South. PLATE 2 is relatively typical of images
that predate the Cola period. It comes from the larger of the two early temples
at Tiruvatikai, near Cuddalore, namely the Virattana. In spite of modifications
and accretions of many dates, both temples date back to the Pallava period: Na-
GASWAMY (1989:31) is inclined to date several of the sculptures from them to
the seventh century. He does not mention this sculpture of Candesvara, but as-
signing it an eighth-century date would not be impossible. It shows a two-armed
figure, with jatabhara rather than jatamukuta, in other words with matted locks
falling down beside the side of the head rather than wrapped up into a chignon
above it. He is seated on a raised platform with one leg dropping down in front
9 Although it is surrounded by miniature panels recounting the legend, various mis-
interpretations of the panel in Gaftgaikkonta-colapuram have been suggested, such
as, for instance, that it shows Siva honouring the patron of the temple, Rajendra
Cola. Nagaswamy (2006:179) ingeniously suggests that Rajendra Cola has cho-
sen to have himself portrayed as Candesvara and that the panel therefore shows
both scenes. This punning possibility cannot perhaps be entirely excluded, but it
does not seem to me likely. The representation continues to figure in lists of the
standard Saiva images until at least the late sixteenth century: we find it, for in-
stance, in Pancaksarayogin's Saivabhusana 155, and verse 353 of that work gives,
by katapayadi notation, 1521 saka (1598/9 AD) as the date of its composition.
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Who is Candesa ?
and the other folded up close to the body and resting entirely on the platform. 10
One of his hands rests on the thigh of the folded leg and the other holds an axe.
He has, as usual, ayajhopavita, prominent earrings, a garland round his neck, a
band round the stomach, well above the waist (an udarabandha), and some dam-
aged central roundel at the top of his jatdbhdra. Could it have been intended to
be a flower? He is placed in a small shrine of his own which is positioned to
the North-East of the central lihga. This is indeed the typical arrangement: he
is inside the inner prdkdra (enclosure wall), but in an aedicule that is not at-
tached either to the prdkdra or to the central shrine. It has only one opening,
on its South face: in other words, this seated Candesa faces the North wall of
the central shrine. In some places, Candesa's shrine is as old as his image, as for
example at the great Rajarajesvara temple in Tanjore; in many others (e.g. in the
Jalanathesvara in Takkolam, Arakkonam Taluk), the shrine, is plainly modern.
We shall return to this point below.
Plate 2. Candesa in his shrine to the NE of the lihga at the Virattanesvara
temple at Tiruvadigai (Tiruvatikai), Panruti Taluk, Cuddalore District.
It is clear that this type of image of Candesa expresses his chief function in ritual:
he is there to receive the nirmdlya, in other words food and garlands that have
been offered to Siva and thereby been imbued with a dangerous power. His posi-
tion to the North-East of the lihga appears to be no accident, for it puts him very
close to iheprandla, the North-pointing spout that protrudes from the North wall
of the shrine and carries away what ever has been poured over the lihga. 11 For
a discussion of this function of Candesa in the context of notions about nirmdlya
and more generally about food and pollution, it would be difficult to better Ed-
holm's lucid account of 'gastrotheology' (1984) and I shall therefore say little
10 It is perhaps worth drawing special attention to this feature, since a number of
colleagues have drawn my attention to the similarity in the postures adopted by
Candesa and in those assumed by images of another South-facing iconographical
group, the so-called 'Daksinamurti' figures. It is true that the postures are simi-
lar, but they are not the same: in the typical posture of a 'Daksinamurti', one foot
actually rests on top of the knee of the other leg. I have not seen a Candesa with
such a posture. Now it is true also that there is considerable variation in the sit-
ting postures of both iconographical types, particularly in the earliest South Indian
representations (which in both cases probably begin with those in the Kailasanatha
temple in Kanchipuram); but even among these variously seated figures I am not
aware of any case of a shared posture. It seems to me that the seated positions
of 'Daksinamurti' (unlike those of Candesa) are intended to be expressive of regal
ease.
11 This positioning of Candesa in the North-East is of course not convenient for the
receipt of garlands, at least in a large temple, where the wall of the main shrine
stands between the lihga and Candesa, but in a small shrine, such as the rock-cut
shrines that we shall mention below, no wall intervenes.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
more about it. Briefly, a fierce and powerful deity is required to neutralise what
has been tasted and abandoned (ucchista) by Siva and is therefore dangerous.
This conception vies with that of 'respect pollution', namely the notion that by
eating what another has tasted and abandoned one expresses a particularly close
connection with that other person, as well as profound submission. The result-
ing tension has produced a multitude of conflicting injunctions about who may
do what and under what circumstances with the nirmdlya of Siva; many of these
are documented in Brunner 1969. Candesa's role as the receiver of perishable
offerings that have been made to Siva can be traced, as we shall see below, to the
very earliest surviving layer of Tantric Saiva literature.
Nowadays, Tamilian devotees typically pause three-quarters of the way in
their pradaksina around the central shrine in a typical East-facing temple, just
past the North-pointing pranala, at the shrine of Candesvara. Here they lean in
between the main shrine's outer wall and the open-face of Candesa's shrine and
clap their hands. This may be a practice that has developed from Candesa's role
of receiving the nirmdlya or from his role of repairing defects in the performance
of a ritual; but it is now given a range of quite different explanations: 1) devotees
must signal to Candesa that they have completed a temple-visit; 2) Candesa is
often asleep; 3) Candesa, unlike other divinities in the temple, is deaf; 4) devotees
must signal to Candesa that they have nothing in their hands, since Candesa is
the guardian of temple property.
3. The surveyor of the temple procession
A third type of Candesa that is widely known from temple processions and art-
history books is Candesa as a standing figure cast in bronze. Plate 3 repre-
sents this type: it is a thirteenth-century bronze figure of Candesvara from the
Pudukkottai Museum. Here a youthful and peaceful looking Candesvara stands
with hands clasped in ahjali and with his distinctive axe tucked in the crook of
one arm. Instead of ajatdbhdra, he wears a jatdmukuta. This is typical of the
standing bronze figures, just as the jatabhara is typical of the seated stone ones,
at least until the late Cola period, in which the jatdmukuta may be used also for
the seated stone figures. 12 Pressed between his clasped hands is a representa-
tion of a flower garland. In other words this is propably a type that intends to
allude to the South Indian aetiological myth. Like the typical early stone figures
he has a single lower garment, which is not a long dhoti, but rather a short one
coming only a short way down his thighs, and it is buckled round his waist with
12 For example, a cult-image of a seated Candesa with jatdmukuta (described by
L'Hernault 1987:113) occupies the Candesa shrine in the Airavatesvara temple
(LADRECH 2007, image 6062-09.jpg: '2nd half of 12th century').
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Who is Candesa ?
a kirtimukha.
Plate 3. A processional image (utsavamurti) of Candesa now in the Pudukkottai
Museum and said to belong to the thirteenth century. Pressed between the hands
is a garland. In bronze images, his hair seems invariably to be heaped up into a
chignon (jatamukuta).
Bronze statues (utsavamurti) are taken out in temple processions, and this is pre-
sumably what such standing bronze figures of Candesa were created for. They
are typically carried at the end of processions of other Saiva bronze images. 13
Four beautiful tenth-century bronze processional images of this type are illus-
trated and described by Nagaswamy (1983:119-123).
Candesa's principal role according to Saiddhantika literature
Thus far we have briefly considered the three best known iconographic types and
it is at this point that I should like to begin to introduce the contexts in which
Candesvara is encountered in Sanskrit literature. I shall begin by quoting and
translating here a passage of a Saiddhantika manual of the twelfth century in
which the worship of Candesvara is enjoined after the regular daily worship of
Siva. The manual in question is the Jnanaratnavali of Jnanasambhu, a South
Indian who lived and wrote in Benares, a contemporary of Aghorasiva, and one
of the teachers of the twelfth -century commentator Trilocanasiva. 14 (The text I
shall quote is based on two manuscripts: M 2 = GOML Madras MS 14898, pp. 138-
9; M y = ORI Mysore, MS P. 3801). The description of the rite is closely parallel
to what we find in the Somasambhupaddhati, and I could therefore have simply
referred the reader to Section 5 of SP1; but I have not done so, partly because
Brunner's translation and annotation are in French and some readers will be
happy to have an English translation of such a description, and partly because
Jnanasiva's version is of intrinsic interest, since he appears to be the first of the
authors ofpaddhatis to surround his ritual instructions with discussion and with
13 See, e.g., Fuller 1984:18; Nagaswamy 1983:9, plate 36; L'Hernault and
Reiniche 1999:59-60; Davis 2002:57; Nagaswamy 2006:178. Among South In-
dian temple agamas, Ajita 25:3-4, for instance, mentions that the 'best' type of nity-
otsava is a procession of nine images, beginning with that of Vinayaka and ending
with that of Candesa, and the Uttara-Kamika, in its presentation of nirajana, in-
cludes a processional image of Candesa (6:253). Cf. also Purva-Karana 141:171cd:
sarvesam prsthato gacchet tatha candesvaras (em.; candesvaram Ed.) tatah. For
pre-twentieth-century visual evidence of such processions, NAGASWAMY (1989,
Plate C3) shows a 'mural painting in the Devasiriya mandapa, in the temple at
Thiruvarur, Tanjore district, depicting the procession of Saints Sambandar, Sun-
darar, Appar, Adhikaranandi and Candikesvara in the annual festival. The mural
was probably painted during the reign of the Mahratta ruler Shaji I c. 1700 A.D.'
14 See Goodall 2000.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
scriptural justifications. His account of the worship of Canda therefore reveals
a number of themes that are worth examining, and it appears to be a source for
many subsequent discussions of cases in which the worship of Canda is omitted.
atha candesvararcanam ucyate. sivarcakanam samayollarighanajanitam 15
yac candam ugraghoram papam tadapaharanakarta 16 candesvara ity ucy-
ate. 17 bahir isakasthayam ardhacandropamagomayamandale 18 anantad-
harmajnanavairagyaisvaryapankajam pranavena vidhaya pujayed idam
asanam. 19 om candasanaya humphannamah iti. tadupari, om candamurtaye
humphannamah iti 20
murtim 21 nilafijanacchayafi caturvaktrarkalocanam 22
sarpopavitakeyuram mukhotthogranalarcisam 23
jvalajjvalardhacandradhyam 24 atibhimam caturbhujam
sulam 25 kamandalum vame dakse tarikaksamalinim 26
rudragniprabhavam dhyatva mulenavahayet param
om dhunicandesvaraya humphat svahety avahanadisthapanam vidhaya, om
candahrdayaya humphannamah, om candasirase humphannamah, om canda-
sikhayai humphannamah, om candakavacaya humphannamah, om candastraya
humphannamah iti sakalikrtya mulena 27 paramikrtya dhenumudrayamrtlkrtya
15 samayollanghana ] M y ; samayolarighanam M 2
16 yaccandamugraghoram papam tadapaharanakarta ] conj.;
yaccamdamugraghoram papamtapaharanakarta M r ; yajet gramaghoram
papamaharanakarta M 2
17 ity ucyate ] M y ; ucyate M 2
18 "kasthayam ardhacandropamagomayamandale ] M 2 ;
°ko „ ayamardhacamdrakrtigomayamandale M r
19 vidhyaya pujayed idam asanam ] M r ; vidhayatha pujayed idam manasam M 2
20 iti tadupari, om candamurtaye humphannamah iti ] M 2 ; iti M r (eyeskip)
21 murtim ] conj.; murti" M r ; om. M 2 (unmetrical)
22 caturvaktrarka" ] M 2 ; caturvaktram ca M y
23 "keyuram mukhotthogranalarcisam ] conj.; "keyuramukhotthogranilarcitam M y ;
"keyuramavorthogranalarcisam M 2
24 jvalajjvalardhacandradhyam ] conj.; jvalacamdra „ x dyax javyardhacandradhyam
M y (unmetrical); jvalajjvalajyamantradhyam M 2
25 sulam] M 2 ;sula°M y
26 vame dakse tarikaksamalinim] em.; vame dakse ghamtaksamalinau M y ;
vamadakso tarikaksamalinim M 2
27 svahety avahanadisthapanam vidhaya, om candahrdayaya humphannamah, om
candasirase humphannamah, om candasikhayai humphannamah, om canda-
kavacaya humphannamah, om candastraya humphannamah iti sakalikrtya
mulena ] conj. ; svahetyavahanadisthapanam vidhaya, om candahrdayaya
humphannamah, om candasikhayai humphannamah, om candakavacaya
humphannamah, om candastraya humphannamah iti sakalikrtya mulena M y ;
svaha M 2 (eyeskip)
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Who is Candesa ?
hrda padyacamanadikam 28 dattva gandhadibhih bhogarigopetam sampujya
yathasakti japam krtva nivedya tatah pranavena
gobhuhiranyavastradi manihemadibhusanam
vihaya sesam 29 nirmalyam candesaya nivedayet
lehyasosyannapanadi 30 tambulam sragvilepanam
nirmalyabhojanam 31 tubhyam pradattam tu sivajnaya 32
iti pathitva sivanirmalyam samarpya om
sarvam etat kriyakandam maya canda tavajnaya
nyunadhikam krtam mohat paripurnam tadastu 33 me 34
iti vijiiapya candesam astapuspya 35 sivavad visarjayet. tad anu nirmalyam
apaniya 36 gomayenopalipya sthanam astrena samproksyarghyam visrjya
karadikam praksalya vidhivad acamya karanganyasam 37 krtva yathasakti 38
sivasamhitam japet. tatha kalottare
aisanyam 39 candanatham tu humphadantena pujayet
vastrannagandhapanarghyanirmalyadipavitrakaih 40
visrjya carghapatram 41 ca samacamyopasamsprset
nyasam krtva yathasakti 42 japtavya sivasamhita
sivarcanam samakhyatam yathavad anupurvasah. iti.
tatha sarvajnanottare
visarjitasya devasya gandhapuspanivedanam
nirmalyam tad vijamyad varjya vastravibhusanam 43
arghayitva tu tarn bhuyas 44 candesaya nivedayet. iti. 45
28 "nadikam ] M 2 ; °nadi M r
L 2>
29 sesam ] M y ; sesa° M 2
30 °sosyana° ] M 2 ; °cosyamnna° M y
31 nirmalya" ] M 2 ; nirmalyam M y
32 Somasambhupaddhati SP1, V:6-7 (= KSTS 296c-298b).
33 tadastu ] conj.; tatastu M r ; sadastu M 2
34 Somasambhupaddhati SP1, V:8 (= KSTS 298c-299b).
35 astapuspya ] conj.; astapuspa M 2
36 tadanu nirmalyam apaniya ] M r ; tada nirmalyam paniya M 2
37 karadikam praksalya vidhivad acamya karanganyasam ] M r ; karanganyasam M 2
(eyeskip)
38 yathasakti ] M 2 ; yathasaktya M r
39 aisanyam ] M 2 ; isanyam M y
40 vastrannagandhapanarghya" ] M 2 ; vastragamdhannapanarghyai M y
41 cargha" ] M 2 ; carghya" M y
42 yathasakti ] M 2 ; yathasaktya M y
43 vastravibhusanam ] M y ; nirmalyabhaksanam M 2
44 arghayitva tu tarn bhuyas ] em.; arpayitva tu tarn bhuya M y ; asvayitva tu tam
bhuyah M 2
45 Sarvajnanottara 6:44c-45 (in numeration of Goodall's forthcoming edition).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
nanu
banalinge cale rohe siddhalinge 46 svayambhuvi
pratimasu ca sarvasu na cando 'dhikrto bhavet
advaitabhavanayukte sthandilesavidhav api 47
iti kecit; apare punah
ghatitasyapi devasya naiva candarcanam. iti 48
tat katham? satyam. etac candapratisthanisedhavacanam, na pujanisedhartham. 49
fetan matantarapramtamt. 50 saivasiddhante 51 punah sarvada sarvatra 52
pujamyam eveti niyamah. tatha ca kalottare
sthire cale tatha ratne mrddarusailakalpite 53
lohe citramaye bane sthitas cando niyamakah 54
siddhante netare tantre na vame 55 na ca daksine. iti.
candadravyam gurudravyam devadravyam tathaiva ca
raurave te tu pacyante manasa ye tu bhumjate 56
tatha
avyakte vyaktake 57 lihge mandale sthandile 88 'nale
cale sthire 59 tatha ratne manicitradike tatha
gandhannasambhave 60 lihge mrdbhasmaphalakalpite
tatha puspamaye lihge candapuja niyamika. iti. 61
A translation follows.
Next [scil. at end of the regular worship of Siva] the worship of Candesvara
46 rohe siddhalinge ] M,; lohe arsalimge M r
47 °lesa° ] M 2 ; °lese W . Somasambhupaddhati SP4 III:60c-61.
48 naiva candarcanam. iti ] M 2 ; candarcanam api M r (unmetrical)
49 tat katham? satyam. etac candapratisthanisedhavacanam, na pujanisedhartham ]
em.; tat katham. sattyam. etac camdapratisthanisedhavacanam. na
pujanisedhadhartham M r ; tatkatham sa u M 2
50 etan matantarapramtam ] M,; etan matamtaram. tatpram x„xtam M^
51 saivasiddhante ] M y ; saive siddhante M 2
52 sarvada sarvatra ] M 2 ; sarvatha sarvada sarva M y
53 ratne mrddarusailakalpite ] M y ; rakte mamrtaraunyakalpite M 2
54 bane sthitas cando niyamakah ] em.; nabhau sthirahs camdo niyamakah M y ; bane
sthitacando nivamakah M 2
55 siddhante netare tantre na vame ] M y ; ure tantre na ta vame M,
56 candadravyam. . . ye tu bhumjate ] M y ; oia. M 2
57 avyakte vyaktake ] M 2 ; vyaktavyaktadike M y
58 sthandile ] M 2 ; kundale M y
59 sthire ] M y ; sthite M 2
60 gandhannasambhave ] em.; gamdhanisambhave M y ; gandhanasambhave M,
61 candapuja niyamika. iti ] M y ; canda umiketi M 2 . Brhatkalottara, candaydgapatala
15-16 (NGMPP B 25/2, f. 5 lr).
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Who is Candesa ?
is taught. Whatever fierce and terrible evil may have been generated by
transgressing the rules by those who venerate Siva, the one who is responsible
for removing that is taught to be Candesvara. Outside, in the North-E astern
direction, in a mandala of cow-dung that is half-moon-shaped he should build
a lotus[-throne] with [the base] Ananta, [the four throne-legs of] Dharma,
Jnana, Vairagya and Aisvarya, [and the seat that is an open] lotus, using the
pranava [as a mantra]. He should venerate this throne with [the mantra] OH
CANDASANAYA HUMPHANNAMAH. Above that, with [the murtimantra, namely]
OM CANDAMURTAYE HUMPHANNAMAH,
he should visualise the form [of the deity] as having the colour of black col-
lyrium, four-faced, twelve-eyed, with snakes for his sacred thread and for
his upper armbands, with flames of fierce fire emerging from his mouth,
bright with a fiery-flamed crescent moon, very terrible, four-armed, with
trident and water-pot on the left and with axe and rosary on the right,
arisen from the fire of Rudraf's anger], and he should then {par am) invite
[Candesa] using his root mantra:
OM dhunicandesvaraya humphat svaha. 62 Having thus accomplished the
seating of the deity that begins with invitation, he should perform sakalikarana
and paramikarana 63 with [the ahgamantras of Candesvara, namely:]
OM CANDAHRDAYAYA HUMPHANNAMAH,
OM CANDASIRASE HUMPHANNAMAH,
OM CANDASIKHAYAI HUMPHANNAMAH,
OM CANDAKAVACAYA HUMPHANNAMAH,
OM CANDASTRAYA HUMPHANNAMAH.
64
With the ' cow -mudr a', he should effect the transformation into nectar, 65 and with
the [above-given] heart-mantra he should offer foot-water, water for sipping, etc.
He should venerate [Candesa] together with his ahgamantras arrayed around
62 In a number of printed sources the principal part of this mantra appears in what is
probably a mistakenly 'normalised' form: dhvanicandesvaraya . But we find dhuni-
elsewhere, for example in the Sarvajnanottara (IFP MS T. 334, p. 122, 19:134):
abhyarcya pahcabhir brahmais candesaya nivedayet
dhunicandesvarayeti humphat svahety anukramat.
63 The first of these expressions refers to the laying on of the mantras of the deity,
either on to one's hands and certain body-parts as part of an identification of oneself
with the deity worshipped, or, as here, on to the imagined body of the deity. The
second expression, a synonym of ekatva and ekikarana, refers to the unification of
these parts.
64 It is possible that the NETRA-mantra has dropped out by accident and should also
be supplied here.
65 This mudra, of which there is a photograph (No. 8) in Planche 1 of SP1, imitates
the udders of a cow and is used for this rite of amrtikarana (q.v. in TAK 1), of
transforming water or other offerings into nectar.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
him (bhogahgopetam) with fragrances and such like [offerings], perform as much
recitation as he is able, and then, with [recitation of] the syllable OM he should
announce:
Apart from cattle, land, gold, cloths and such, ornaments of jewels and
gold and such, all else that has been offered and enjoyed [by Siva] (sesam
nirmalyam) one should give to Candesa. Whatever can be licked, sucked,
chewed or drunk, betel, garlands, unguents — all such things that have
been offered and enjoyed [by Siva] are given to you by Siva's command.
After reciting this, he should offer what has been offered and enjoyed by Siva,
saying
om. O Canda, all this ritual, if, because of ignorance, I have performed
it deficiently or adding something, then let it be rendered perfect by your
command.
After thus addressing Candesa, he should invite him to depart with the perfor-
mance of the eight-flower rite, 66 just as [one does] in the case of Siva. After that,
one should remove what has been offered and enjoyed, smear the place with cow-
dung, besprinkle it using the ASTRA-mantra, pour away the guest-water, wash
one's hands and such, sip water according to the prescribed fashion, and lay the
mantras [of Siva back again] on one's hands and body parts, 67 and recite, for as
much as one is able, the [collection of principal mantras of Siva known as the]
SIVASAMHITA.
Thus [the teaching to be found] in the Kalottara:
In the North-East, using [his mantras] ending in HUMPHAT, one should
venerate Candanatha with such purifying [offerings] as clothing, food,
scents, drinks, guest-water and what has been offered to and enjoyed [by
Siva]. One should [then] pour away [the water from] the guest- water
vessel, sip, touch the lips, perform the laying [of the mantras of Siva back
on to one's body] and the sivasamhita should be recited for as long as
one is able. The veneration of Siva has [now] been taught in due order
exactly as it should be.
Thus [the teaching to be found] in the Sarvajnanottara:
One should know that those scents, flowers and food-offerings made to
the God who has [since] been invited to depart are nirmalya. [In other
words, everything offered to the God is nirmalya] excepting clothing and
ornaments. After giving him guest-water, one should once again offer
[those offerings] to Candesa.
KK
See TAK 1 s.v. astapuspika.
67 Cf. SP1, appendix 1 for a presentation of Aghorasiva's account of this procedure.
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Who is Candesa ?
Surely
In the case of a banalihga, a portable one, ones that have risen [from
rivers], 68 one established by a Siddha, a spontaneously arisen one and in
the case of all [representational] images, Canda has no authority. [So too]
in the case of one in which there is visualisation of a non-dual [deity such
as Bhairava or Tumburu]. 69 And also in the case of rites for the Lord
[installed] on the ground.
Others, however, [opine:]
No worship of Canda [is to be performed] when the [image of] the Lord
has been crafted either. 70
How can [such a view as] that [be maintained]? True. [But] this is [in fact]
a prohibition of the installation of Canda and not a prohibition of his worship.
fThis is advanced as somebody else's doctrinef. In the Saiva Siddhanta, however,
the rule is that he should always and in every case be worshipped. And this is
expressed in the Kalottara:
Whether the lihga is stable or portable, or made of precious stone, clay,
wood, rock, iron, or is represented in a picture, or is a banalihga, [the
worship of] Canda remains determined by rule (niyamakah) 11 in the
Siddhanta, but not in other tantric traditions: neither in the Vamasrotas
nor in the Daksinasrotas.
Those who enjoy what belongs to Canda, what belongs to the guru or
what belongs to the God, [even] in thought, are cooked in [the hell called]
Raurava.
And
[When Siva is worshipped] in aniconic and iconic images, in a mandala,
on the ground, in fire, in a portable or fixed lihga, in one made of precious
stones, or in a jewelled picture or the like, or in a lihga made of unguents
68 Thus Brunner (1998:242 and fn. 152). Alternatively one could adopt the reading
lohe/lauhe: 'one made of metal'.
69 Brunner (1998:242) interprets this pada to mean: 'II n'y a rien a faire non plus
dans les cultes ou l'officiant se sent un avec Siva. . . ', but Professor Sanderson
pointed out to me that such an interpretation is unlikely and his alternative in-
terpretation appears to receive confirmation from a fragment of the unpublished
Vastuvidya attributed to Visvakarma, quoted below in the section entitled 'Candesa
outside Tamil Nadu'.
70 This presumably means that the worship of Canda would be recommended when
Siva is worshipped in a bana-lihga or a svayambhulihga, but not in a man-made
one.
71 Instead of this interpretation, we could perhaps assume a more regular sense of
niyamakah: 'Canda remains in control'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
or food, or in one made of clay or ash or fruits, or in one made of flowers,
the worship of Canda is determined by rule (niydmikd).
Worship without an image, and the axe and the club
The above passage is rich with material and I shall therefore now attempt, with
the following pages, gradually to unpack points that most merit discussion.
Now the first thing which may strike the reader here is that the discussion
is about the worship of Candesa without any image of Candesa present. The wor-
ship is to be performed in a space to the North-East, on a crescent-moon shaped
mandala, a detail that echoes the shape of the blade of Candesa's characteristic
implement, the axe. This is certainly an ancient detail, 72 and the axe, further-
more, is not confined to South Indian prescriptive literature, for we find it in the
description of Candesa as general of Siva's army of ganas (pramatha) in the old
Skandapurana 170:3:
candesvaras candavapur mahdtmdjvalatpradiptograkutharapdnih
vydddya vaktram puratah sthito 'bhud devasya sambhoh pramathendravirah.
The great-souled, fierce-body Candesvara was standing there in front with open
mouth, a flaming, bright, fierce axe in his hand, the hero-prince of Lord Sambhu's
hosts.
And the axe features in the oldest tantric description too, namely that in the
Mulasutra of the Nisvasatattvasamhita. 13 Moreover, we find it in many of the
most ancient sculptures of Candesa, for instance that shown in Plate 2, but also
in those in the perhaps more ancient rock-cut shrines at Bhairavakona (PLATE
34). It is, however, not a universal detail, for we find many old sculptures from
the South in which the implement that Candesa holds, whether in his left or his
right hand, is plainly a club, sometimes a club around which snakes are twined.
Some examples of this early type are Plates 4-7. 74
72 The Svdyambhuvasutrasahgraha too begins its account of the ydga of Canda, chap-
ter 15, with the drawing of a crescent-moon mandala. The Svdyambhuvasutra-
sahgraha is one of the scriptures that was known to Sadyojyotih, whom SANDER-
SON (2006a:76) judges to have been active between 675 and 725 ad. Still older is
the mention in the Uttarasiitra of the Nisvasatattvasamhita (3:14ab): ardhacan-
dran tu candise abhicdre trikonakam. 'A [mandala with the shape of] a crescent
moon for [the worship of] Candisa; triangular for [rites of] malevolent magic' Cf.
also Mrgendra kriyapada 8:36.
73 Mulasutra of the Nisvdsa 5:22cd: aparedyur yajed devam candisam
tahkadhdrinam, 'On the following day, he should worship Candisa, who bears
the axe'. Cf. also Kirana 23:7cd: tarpayed yajnasesena candesam tahkadhdrinam,
'He should gratify Candesa, who bears the axe, with the sacrificial leavings'.
(Acharya (2005:214, fn. 25) quotes this verse but mistakenly ascribes it to the
Svdyambhuvasutrasahgraha.
74 See also Goodall et al. 2005, Figs. 31-4.
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Who is Candesa ?
Plate 4. Candesa with a club now installed above the pranala at the ruined
Tirumulanatha shrine at Perangiyur (Perankiyur), Villupuram Taluk, Villupu-
ram District. It is clear that this is not where the image originally belonged. (I
am grateful to N. Ramaswamy for drawing my attention to this sculpture.)
It is true that such early club-wielding figures have in a few cases been iden-
tified by some as images of Lakulisa, but I have been convinced by Edholm's
demonstration (1998) that they represent in fact Candesa. 75
Plate 5. Detail of Candesa with a club at the rock-cut shrine at Devarmalai,
Kulittalai Taluk, Karur Dt. Snakes twist about the club. On the top of his head
is a curiously shaped flower that may be compared with that in Plate 6. Photo:
IFP/EFEO.
Plate 6. Club-wielding Candesa in the Srityagaraja Temple at Tiruvarur, Tiru-
varur Taluk, Tanjore Dt. Snakes twist about the club. Compare the curiously
shaped flower with that in Plate 5. Photo: IFP/EFEO.
Returning to the absence of the mention of any image of Candesvara here,
the obvious explanation for this is that Jnanasambhu is not primarily describ-
ing what happens in a temple, but rather the private worship of an individual
initiate. Nevertheless, this absence draws our attention to the possibility that
one of the reasons why there are so many regions of India (and South East Asia)
where no images of Candesvara have been identified (even though textual refer-
ences to him exist there) might be that in those regions there was no practice of
representing Candesa. And we may note that in parts of Karnataka there is a
practice of placing a post or linga in the North-East corner of the inner enclosure
of a Saiva temple for the worship of Candesa. 76
75 See also Goodall et al. 2005:58.
76 In the photo-library of the IFP, there is a photograph of what appears to be such
a lihga in the Mahabalesvara temple in Gokarna, Kumta Taluk, North Karnataka
(photo 5046-4) and also a photo of a faceted broken stump in the North East cor-
ner of the inner enclosure of the Candramaulisvara temple in Udipi, Udipi Taluk,
South Kanara Dt., Karnataka (photo 8050-5). Acharya (2005:209) points out that
there is a shrine in the North-East corner of the famous Pasupati temple in Kath-
mandu that is "simply called 'Candesvara's' shrine and a small odd shaped linga is
worshipped there". ACHARYA adds (2005:209, fn.ll) "It is highly probable that this
shrine was built later when the Pasupati temple in Kathmandu got influence from
the South and accepted Saiddhantika ritual scheme. It is sure that Candesvara is
made the consumer of nirmalya only later in Siddhanta Saivism". While ACHARYA
may or may not be right about the North-Eastern shrine in the Pasupati temple be-
ing a relatively recent innovation that post-dates the arrival of South Indian priests
there, the relation between Candesa and nirmalya goes back to what is probably
one of the earliest references to Candesa, namely the description of his roles in the
Nisvasa (a text that appears to predate the split in tantric Saivism between the
Saiva Siddhanta and other streams), which we shall quote below.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Plate 7. Club-wielding Candesa (?) inside the enclose to the North-East of
the lihga in the Virattanesvara Temple at Kilaiyur (Kilaiyur), Tirukoyilur Taluk,
Villupuram Dt. The image has received the mistaken label 'Sri Jatamuni'. I treat
this image as a possible Candesa, but, as my colleague Dr. Charlotte Schmid has
pointed out to me, the original position of this sculpture (as is the case of some
other club-wielding figures) is unknown. Furthermore she has pointed out to me
that the same temple has a set of saptamatrka figures of comparable style and
that it is therefore conceivable that this figure belongs to that set as the fierce
Saiva deity, who, along with Gajanana, often accompanies the Mothers, and to
whom various names (for instance, Virabhadra) are assigned. Photo: Emmanuel
Francis.
We may also note that some texts that do really appear to be prescribing the
worship of Siva in a public temple also refer to the possibility that Candesa may
not have his own image and may nonetheless be worshipped. An example is
Purva-Kamika 4:523-525b:
aisanyam pujayec candam gandhapuspadibhih kramat
tasmai samarpayet sarvam nirmalyam tat prakirtitam 523
lihgamurdhastham ity eke pindikayam athdpare
aisanyam pithakastham va bahye candagrhe 'ihava 524
One should venerate Canda in the North East with scents, flowers and such in
due order. To him one should offer all nirmalya — that has been explained. Some
say [one should worship] him situated in the top of the lihga, others say situated
in thepindika or in the North East of the stand, or outside in a temple for Canda.
Four-armed visualisations of Candesa
The second thing to strike the reader's eyes as they travel over Jnanasambhu's
prescriptive account will be the visualisation of Candesvara as a fierce, fiery,
four-armed and four-faced deity.
Plate 8. Four-armed and four-faced Candesa still in situ in the shrine to the NE
of the lihga in the somewhat dilapidated but not derelict Maruntisvara Temple
at Kacchur (Kaccur), Singaperumalkoyil Taluk, Chengleput Dt. The upper hands
bear rosary and spouted water-pot; the lower ones hold axe and trident. I am
grateful to N. Ramaswamy for drawing my attention to this image. Photo: N.
Ramaswamy.
Hitherto, we have looked only at two-armed types, which are overwhelmingly
more commonly represented in sculpture. In Saiddhantika literature, however, it
is four-armed forms that predominate. Jnanasambhu's visualisation of Candesa
is essentially the same as that of his twelfth-century contemporary Aghorasiva
(see, e.g., Pancavaranastava 101), of the eleventh-century author Somasambhu
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Who is Candesa ?
(SP1, V:l-2), of a certain Vairocana (Pratisthalaksanasarasamuccaya 17:15-17),
who was probably a Nepalese author of the eleventh or twelfth century, 77
and also of two unpublished pratisthatantras that survive in early Nepalese
manuscripts, namely the Mayasahgraha and the Mohacudottara. 78 The Maya-
sangraha cannot be later than the tenth century, for a commentary on it
survives by Vidyakantha II, the son of the tenth-century Kashmirian author
Ramakantha II (see GOODALL 1998:x-xi).
Plate 9. Candesas of various dates and provenance gathered from neighbour-
ing temples and displayed in a courtyard of the Tiruvavaduthurai Adheenam
(Tiruvavatuturai), Mayavaram Taluk, Nagapattinam District. N. Ramaswamy
drew my attention to these sculptures. 79
Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Plate 10. Four-armed and four- faced Candesa in a courtyard of the Tiru-
vavaduthurai Adheenam (Tiruvavatuturai). The deity's top right hand has a
trident; his top left hand, which presumably held an axe, has been broken away.
The lower hands hold a rosary (deity's right) and a round object that may be a
fruit. Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Plate 11. The fourth face on the reverse of the sculpture shown in Plate 10.
Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Plate 12. Four-armed and four- faced Candesa in a courtyard of the Tiru-
vavaduthurai Adheenam (Tiruvavatuturai). The top left hand has an axe; the
top right hand, a trident. The lower hands hold a rosary and spouted water-pot.
Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
77 See Goodall et al. 2005:24.
78 For the texts of these various passages, see Goodall et al. 2005:184-5.
79 The label 'Dvaparayugacandesvara' appears to derive from what is probably a late
list of five types of Candesvaras which is twice presented in a rather corrupt form
(with only 4 names although the text twice says that there should be 5) in Supra-
bheda kriyapada 47:3-7b:
pracandadir viniskranta pancamurtir vidhanatah
pracandacandah prathamam tato vikrantacandakah 3
trtiyo vibhucandas tu viracandas caturthakah
evam vai panca candesah pancabrahmasamudbhavah 4
krtayugadhipatyam tu pracandam idam ucyate
vikrantacandanama tu tretayam adhipah smrtah 5
dvapare cadhipatyam hi vibhus candesa ucyate
kalau tu viracandesasvadhipatyam prakirtitam 6
evam vai pancabhedena cando nama vidhiyate
3a pracandadir] conj.; pracandadi Ed. • 3d "candakah ] conj.; candagah Ed.
• 4a vibhu° ] conj.; bhuvi Ed. • 4cd candesah pancabrahmasamudbhavah ] conj.;
candesa paneabrahmasamudbhava Ed. • 7b cando ] conj.; canda Ed.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Plate 13. The fourth face on the reverse of the sculpture shown in Plate 12.
Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
We also find an extremely similar visualisation, in the influential eleventh-
century Brhatkalottara, 80 where it is followed by a an alternative four-armed
visualisation (candayagapatala 13c-14: NGMPP B 25/2, f 51r; B 24/59, f. 45r):
sulatahkadharam dhydyet kamandalvaksasutrinam 13
mahabhujam mahoraskam bhinnahjanacayopamam
ekavaktram trinetram ca tahkaksam abhayapradam 14
• 13c sulatankadharam dhyayet ] B 24/59; sulamkusakaram dhyayet B 25/2 • 13d
"sutrinam ] em.; "sutrikam B 24/59; "sutranam B 25/2 • 14a mahoraskam ] B 24/59;
gameraska B 25/2 • 14c ekavaktram ] B 25/2; evavaktram B 24/59
One should visualise him holding trident, axe, water-pot and rosary, with power-
ful arms, a big chest, like a heap of broken charcoal [in colour]. [Or alternatively]
one-faced, three-eyed, [holding] axe [and] rosary [and showing the gestures of]
abhaya and boon-giving. 81
The first of this pair of visualisations does not specify the number of heads, and
it is therefore likely that readers would have understood only one head to be
intended in each case.
Now all the four-handed four-faced forms, both in literature and in sculp-
ture, appear to be relatively late, the earliest of them being perhaps that of
the Mohacudottara. Furthermore, given how standard four-armed visualisa-
tions are in Saiddhantika ritual texts, and given the widespread assumption
that the majority of temples in the Tamil-speaking South have long been in
some strong sense Saiddhantika, it is surprising how extremely rare it is to find
four-armed representations in worship. In GOODALL et al. 2005, we illustrated
and described at length a four-armed and four-faced image under worship in the
Candesa shrine of the Uttarapathesvara temple in Tiruchchengattangudi (Tiruc-
cehkattahkuti), Nannilam Taluk, Tanjore Dt. (2005:60, Figs. 37 and 38). Since
then, N. RAMASWAMY has drawn my attention to a very much later sculpture
that accords more nearly with Jnanasambhu's prescription and that is still in
situ: see PLATE 8. One other still in worship is in the Candesa-shrine in the
best known of all South Indian Saiva temples, namely that at Chidambaram;
but its identity seems now no longer to be recognised, for, because of its four
80 The Brhatkalottara is here assigned to the eleventh-century on the grounds that
it appears not to have been known to the tenth-century Kashmirian commenta-
tors. The first quotations ascribed to it that we can identify in the work as it is
transmitted in Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts appear, as far as I am aware, in
Jnanasambhu's twelfth-century Jnanaratnavali.
81 The second of these visualisations, with one face, three eyes, axe, rosary, abhaya
and varada, is adopted in the Prayogamahjarl of Ravi (20:158).
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Who is Candesa ?
heads, it is taken to be a sculpture of Brahma: as Younger remarks (1995:44,
fn. 43), 'The image of Cantecuvaran in Citamparam is special because it has a
four-faced Brahma with it, and the two images are always worshiped together.' 82
No other seated four-faced, four armed Candesvara is known to me that is still
under worship in a shrine to the North-East of a linga in the Tamil-speaking
South. 83 But there are indeed other surviving images of this type that belong
to the 'Cola period'. Among these, we have referred elsewhere (Goodall et al.
2005: 188) to the four-armed Candesvara identified by DE Mallman (1963:65-6)
in the Musee Guimet, and to the beautiful (though also damaged) stone sculpture
from Darasuram now in the Tanjore Museum (identified as a Candesa by Harle,
1963:108, but see also L'Hernault 1987:118 and photo 108 or Ladrech 2007,
image 6766-08.jpg). Here the axe and water-pot are plainly visible in the deity's
upper and lower left hands respectively, but the implements held in the right
hands, presumably trident and rosary, are now broken away. LADRECH, in her
description of this image dates it to the second half of the twelfth century and
says, following L'HERNAULT 1987:118, that it formerly belonged 'in a niche of
the second gateway'. The reason for his assumption appears to be the inscribed
label on the lintel of a niche in the second gateway that reads adicandesvara-
devar (LADRECH 2007, image 8491-03.jpg). But it may be that this label once
belonged to a standing four-armed Candesvara such as those to be found in the
gopurams of Chidambaram, as described by Harle 1963:107-8, plates 140-1.
We failed, however, to refer to one other published Cola sculpture that
corresponds to this four-armed, four-faced type, which also belongs to the
Airavatesvara temple in Darasuram and is still there. It has all four implements
visible, including the trident and rosary in the top and bottom right hands of the
deity respectively, and is to be found in a niche on the North face of the Eastern
hall of the main shrine (L'HERNAULT 1987:90-1 and photo 50 or LADRECH 2007,
image 47-Ol.jpg: same as 8488-01.jpg). As L'HERNAULT remarks (1987:91),
the image seems, once again, to be rather squat for the niche that it occu-
82 This mistaken identification of the four-faced Candesvara in Chidambaram as
Brahma may be some centuries old if David Smith is correct in his interpreta-
tion of verse 30 of the Kuncitahghristava attributed to the fourteenth-century au-
thor Umapati: see Smith 1996:95, 189 and fn. 5 on p. 277. The attribution of the
Kuncitahghristava seems to me doubtful, however; I believe that a handful of au-
thors called Umapati should be distinguished: see Goodall 2004:cxv-cxix.
83 Doubtless others exist, but they are rare. A rather crude image of this type that may
be under worship in a shrine to the North East can be seen in photograph 445-5 in
the photo-library of the IFP, from the Somesvara temple at Andakudi (Antakkuti),
Nagapattinam Taluk, Tanjore Dt.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
pies. 84 N. Ramaswamy has pointed out to me two other four-faced, four-armed
Candesas displayed in a courtyard of the Tiruvavaduturai Adheenam, presum-
ably gathered together from surrounding temples (see Plates 9-13). One of
these corresponds to Jfianasambhu's prescription (PLATES 12-13); the other
is perhaps closer to what we find in Tiruchchengattangudi, since, instead of a
water-pot, he is holding a round object that may be a fruit. Perhaps it is also
a fruit held by the handsome four-armed Candesvara in the Victoria Jubilee
Museum in Vijayavada (Plate 14)?
Plate 14. Four-armed and one-faced Candesa in the Victoria Jubilee Museum
in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. The Museum number is 'VM 495' and the sculp-
ture, now in the garden of the Museum, bears a label identifying it as a 'Bhairava'
of the tenth or eleventh century, from Penugonda in West Godavari District. A
photograph in the photo-library of the IFP, where it is classed as a Candesa, shows
it inside the Museum (photo 5984-6). The upper hands hold axe and rosary; the
lower hands, abhaya and a round object that may be a fruit.
Plate 15. Four-armed and one-faced Candesa in the Pudukkottai Museum,
dated (according to the label) to the tenth century. I have not been able to de-
termine what, if anything, the deity's upper right hand holds. It displays a kar-
tarimudra as though it should hold something, just as the deity's upper left hand
does, which 'holds' a rosary. The lower right hand has the axe and the lower left
hand rests on the left thigh. Notice the flat-petaled flower on the expanse of head
between the forehead and the heavy jatabhara.
Plate 16. Four-armed and one-faced Candesa in the Candrasekhara temple in
Samalkot, Kakinad Taluk, East Godavari Dt. Axe, rosary, abhaya, varada. Photo:
IFP/EFEO.
84 As for the use of the label Adicandesvara rather than Candesvara, L'Hernault
(ibid.) comments that this manner of creating two names is a conventional way of
differentiating between two iconographical variants of the same figure: 'En realite
ce type de distinction dans les noms parait etre une fapon conventionnelle et com-
mode de differencier deux variantes iconographiques d'un meme personnage'. An-
other possibility is that the Adi-' element derives from the epithet Adidasa', which
is frequently applied to him in South Indian epigraphs (see, e.g., SII, vol. 1 passim).
All L'Hernault's remarks on the various figures of Candesvara, incidentally, seem
eminently sensible. She may be wrong, however, to suggest (L'Hernault 1987:94)
that his four-armed, four-faced form was inspired by the Saradatilaka. (For the
probable date and provenance of that work, see SANDERSON 2007, in particular
p. 233.) Certainly that is not the ultimate source of this iconography, and it seems
more likely that the immediate inspiration too was a Saiddhantika work. And she
may be wrong to state (1987:113) that no representations of the two-armed form of
Candesa prior to the 11th and 12th centuries show the dhuyavarada gesture, since
we find this at Punjai (Plate 27), and that none has his locks wrapped up into a
chignon, since we find this feature in the figure that should perhaps be identified as
Candesa at Arittappatti, for which see Edholm 1998.
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Who is Candesa ?
A handful of Southern images reflect the four-armed, one-headed visualisation
represented by the Brhatkalottara. One is from the Tevarcirikapperuman
temple, Tiruvalangadu, Tiruttani Taluk, Tiruvallur Dt., for which see FlG. 39 of
GOODALL et al. 2005; another is now in the Museum in Pudukkottai (PLATE 15)
and the others are in temples in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh
(Plates 16-17). 85
Plate 17. Four-armed and one-faced Candesa in the Kukkutesvara temple in
Pithapuram, Pithapuram Taluk, East Godavari Dt. Axe, rosary, abhaya, varada.
Photo: IFP/EFEO.
But there is an entirely different group of one-faced, four-armed sculptures that
may represent Candesvara from quite the other end of the sub-continent, from
Nepal. Acharya (2005:213) describes an image in the South-East corner of the
courtyard of the Pasupati temple in Kathmandu as having
four hands holding a trident and some unidentifiable object to the left, and a
rosary of rudraksa beads and a citron to the right. The lower part of the body is
clothed in the skin of a tiger, while the upper part of the body is shown naked.
[. . . ] this image bears the sacred thread [. . . ] It is represented with the third eye
in the forehead, with matted hair on the head and the membrum virile upraised.
ACHARYA goes on to explain (2005:214):
He is represented in almost each and every Siva temple in this form. No image of
him is found in seated posture, and absence of a hatchet is distinctive in Nepalese
sculptures of Candesvara.
Plate 18A. Four-armed, one-faced Candesa(?) from courtyard of the nineteenth-
century Ranamuktesvara temple in Kathmandu. In this case, the image is found
to the North-East of the shrine and facing West. Diwakar ACHARYA has informed
me, however, that the standard position for installation of such images is to the
South-East of the lihga and facing West, but that when alterations are made, such
images may be moved around for convenience. No motivation for any shift in po-
sition is evident in this case. The faceted column behind the sculpture supports a
chattra, perhaps in imitation of the 'Chattra-candesvara' who stands to the South
East of the lihga in the Pasupati temple (for which, see below). A modern chattra
above the image is supported by the facetted post behind the image. In the back
85 The photo-library of the IFP also has photographs that are unfortunately not suffi-
ciently sharp to be reproduced that appear to show a damaged sculpture of a four-
armed Candesvara with a rosary in the deity's upper right hand, an axe(?) tucked
into the crook of his lower left arm, and with the two lower hands joined together
in some sort ofmudra that is built into what may be a broken buttress in the South
East corner of the Biccavolu temple at Nakkalagudi, Ramacandrapura Taluk, East
Godavari Dt.: photos 3544-11 and 3544-12.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
hands are held rosary (with the bead known as Meru at the top) and trident; in
the lower hands are held a chisel (?) and a water pot. Markings on the thighs sug-
gest that he is intended to be shown wearing a tiger-skin. Around the wrists and
upper arms and on the head-dress are strings of what may be rudrdksa beads. A
brass plaque beneath the image, added at the time of a festival in 2003, identifies
the figure as 'Sri Kamadeva'. Photo: Rajan Khatiwoda of the Nepal German
Manuscript Cataloguing Project.
But is Acharya correct in supposing that these Nepalese sculptures are indeed
representations of Candesa? I think that he may be: there are several factors
which explain why, until ACHARYA's article, no secondary literature appears to
have identified these figures with Candesa. One is that they seem commonly to
be placed to the South East of the linga rather than to the North East, which
seems to conflict with all prescriptive literature as well as with South Indian
practice; a second is that they are standing and ithyphallic, whereas South In-
dian representations of Candesa are all seated, with the exception of the proces-
sional bronzes, and none is ithyphallic; a third is that the Nepalese images do
not carry an axe or a club; and a fourth is that the Nepalese images are iden-
tified locally as images of Kamadeva 86 or Siva-Kamadeva. 87 Let us deal with
these problematic points one by one. The first is certainly odd, for the placement
of Candesa in the North East seems so invariable, not only in his capacity as
the receiver ofnirmdlya, but also in his position in the retinue of Sadasiva when
worshipped at the centre of several circuits (avarana) of deities. Many tantric
sources include a circuit of Ganesas, namely Devi (N), Candesa (NE), Nan din (E),
Mahakala (SE), Bhrngin (S), Vinayaka (SW), Vrsabha (W), and Skanda (NW), in
between the ring of 8 Vidyesvaras and the ring of eight (or ten) Lokapalas (see
Goodall et al. 2005: Fig. 8). And his place in the North East is known to us
not just from Saiddhantika sources, but also from a work of the Sivadharma cor-
pus, 88 namely the Sivopanisat, whose description of the Saiva temple (ayatanam
86 Thus ACHARYA 2005:216, fn. 35.
87 This is the label used by John and Susan Huntington in their public archive,
the 'Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art' http : //huntington .wmc .
ohio- state . edu/public/ index . cfm.
88 For a brief characterisation of this corpus of texts teaching a lay Saiva religion, see
Goodall 1998:375-6, fn. 616 and Sanderson 2005:231. According to both these
characterisations the corpus is unpublished, but for one work, the Sivopanisat; but
there is in fact a printed version, apparently based on one late manuscript, to which
Professor ISAACSON kindly drew my attention in 2007: the editor (if that is not
too flattering a term for the person who has produced the shoddy book) was a cer-
tain Yogi Naraharinatha, who had the corpus printed in Kathmandu in 1998 un-
der the misleading title Pasupatimatam Sivadharmamahasastram Pasupatinatha-
darsanam. An edition of another work of the corpus, the Sivadharmasahgraha, is
being produced in Pondicherry by Anil Kumar ACHARYA. As the latter has pointed
out to me, Candesvara is also mentioned in what is probably the earliest work of the
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Who is Candesa ?
sambhoh) contains the following details (2:17c-19b):
tanmahdnasam dgneyydm purvatah sattramandapam 17
sthdnam candesam aisdnydm puspdrdmam tathottaram
kosthdgdram ca vayavyam vdrunydm varundlayam 18
samindhanakusasthdnam dyudhdndm ca nairrtam.
Its kitchen should be in the South East; in the East should be the sacrificial pavil-
ion; the place [of?] Candesa is in the North East; and the North is the garden; the
store-room should be in the North West; the water reserve in the West; the place
for the Sami[-wood implements used to make fire], of kindling and of k usa grass
and also of instruments is South-Western.
But it is not unknown for the prescribed directions of deities to change: in Nepal,
the bull is consistently placed to the West of Saiva shrines, just as we would ex-
pect from the bull's position in the above-mentioned ganesdvarana, whereas in
South Indian temples the bull is consistently placed in the East. Furthermore,
as we shall see below (see the section entitled 'Candesa and the North East'),
the very earliest texts do not in fact associate Candesvara with any particular
direction. As for the standing posture, this conflicts only with South Indian con-
ventions, but not, apparently, with any of the textual prescriptions. Nothing is
said in the texts known to us of Candesa's being ithyphallic, but this is a detail
that appears to be added to some forms of Siva in some regions of the subconti-
nent and not in others. There appear, for example, to be no Saiva images that
corpus, the Sivadharmasastra itself, at the beginning of the ninth chapter, in a long
list of divine and semi-divine beings who have practised the pious act to which the
chapter is devoted. The half-line in question reads as follows in the twelfth-century
palm-leaf manuscripts in Cambridge (Add. 1694, f 27r and Add. 1645, f 25r)
bhrhgi-mdtr-mahdkdla-candesvara-ganadhipaih
(The same unit is also to be found in South Indian sources, for instance IFP
T. 32, p. 103, where it appears as follows: bhrmgamdtramahdkdlacandidandi-
ganddhipaih.) Although no direction is assigned here to Candesa and no infor-
mation is given about him, his mention is of importance because, as Hazra has
observed, the Sivadharmasastra 'is totally free from Tantric influence' (1953a:16)
and so probably early. Hazra (ibid. ) is inclined to date it to 'between 200 and 500
A.D.' The work's sequel, the Sivadharmottara, however, 'recognises the authority
of the Sivagamas and the Sivatantras', according to Hazra (1953b:46), but there
are features in that work too that suggest rather a Pasupata context, such as its
instructions for installing in the upper story of a lecture hall 'an earthen, wooden
or stone image of Nakulisvara Siva' (Hazra 1953b:30). Hazra does not cite the
prescription, but in IFP T 510, p. 26, it reads as follows:
tatra mrdddrusailam vd sthdpayed vidhivac chivam
sarvavidydvidhdtdram sarvajham lakulisvaram
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
are ithyphallic in the Tamil-speaking South, whereas in Bengal even Sadasiva
maybe ithyphallic (see GOODALL et al. 2005: FlG. 44).
Turning to the four attributes held in the hands, the trident and rosary are
to be found in the Saiddhantika visualisations, and we have already noted that
instead of a water-pot, something that could be a fruit is held by the Tirucchen-
gattangudi image as well as by those shown in PLATES 12-14. Furthermore,
although I have not seen and cannot judge the figure in the Pasupati temple,
most of the representations of this figure that I have seen and all of the ones
published in the on-line 'Huntington Archive' have a gourd-like water-pot (aldbu)
rather than a fruit. Most problematic, however, is the 'unidentified object' that is
neither an axe nor a club. Perhaps the two-armed visualisation illustrated in the
volume of drawings that accompanies the edition of the Pratisthalaksanasara-
samuccaya (PLATE 30, and cf. the illustrations in the two manuscripts of that
same text reproduced by Buhnemann 2003:91, picture 89) may offer a clue. The
word tafika, which appears in several visualisations of Candesa, including both
of the ones in the Pratisthalaksanasarasamuccaya, can, according to MONIER-
WlLLlAMS, refer to such diverse instruments as a spade, hatchet, stonecutter's
chisel, sword or scabbard. The Nepalese illustrators of the prescriptions appear
to have chosen to understand the word to refer to a chisel (see Plate 30). Per-
haps the 'unidentified object' is some sort of instrument for chiselling. The figures
in the 'Huntington Archive' all appear to have a small shield-like object with a
knob fixed to its centre. The knob is slipped between the index finger and thumb
of the deity's lower right hand, which hangs down with palm towards the viewer,
so that almost all of the shield is hidden by the hand. Now in some cases a
round or rounded shield-like shape is clearly part of the object because it covers
up something behind it; 89 but in others it looks rather more like a raised por-
tion of stone whose only purpose is to support the finer detail carved in front of
it; 90 and in some cases the shield-like object seems to be absent altogether (see
Plates 18A AND 18B). This leaves only a knob-like shape between thumb and
forefinger, perhaps intended as a sort of handle-less chisel.
89 The shield-like disc covers the trident-staff in the Huntingtons' scan No. 0019412
described as 'Siva Kamadeva' from 'Lhugha Baha, exterior courtyard, north side',
dated to the 'Three Kingdom Malla' period.
90 In the Huntingtons' scan No. 0017157, for instance (described as 'Siva Kamadeva'
situated in the 'Mahadeva temple, east side, facing temple' and dated again to the
'Three Kingdom Malla' period), the raised portion of stone behind the rosary in the
deity's upper right hand seems comparable with the area of raised stone behind the
lower right hand. In this image, incidentally, there is an axe-blade fixed to the haft
of the trident, but this probably cannot be taken to be Candesa's distinctive weapon:
tridents in Nepal often have an axe blade affixed to them, and in some cases also a
damaru.
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Who is Candesa ?
Plate 18B. Four-armed, one-faced Candesa(?) from among the many sculptures
placed each to the South-East of one of the numerous lihga shrines on an upper
terrace the other side of the Vagmati river from the Pasupati temple in Kath-
mandu. Diwakar Acharya has informed me that these belong to the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. Once again, I take the implement in the deity's lower
right hand to be a sort of 'chisel'. Photo: Kei Kataoka.
It seems to me possible, therefore, that the chisel is the intended original im-
plement and that it corresponds to the tahka of our descriptions. In support of
this, one more image may be adduced (Plate 18C) in which each implement has
been given a sort of decorated halo behind it. If one were to study the image's
lower right hand in isolation, one would have little hesitation in proclaiming it
a shield, and yet it is plain from looking at the other hands that it cannot be
intended to be one.
Plate 18C. Four-armed, one-faced Candesa(?) from one of the many lihga
shrines on the other side of the Vagmati river from the Pasupati temple in
Kathmandu. In the back hands are a rosary (with the bead known as Meru at
the top) and a trident, each with a decorated halo behind it, and in the lower
hands are held a chisel and a water pot, again each with a decorated halo behind.
Photo: Rajan Khatiwoda of the Nepal German Manuscript Cataloguing Project.
But there is one further Nepalese image that must be mentioned, for seeing
it just before submitting this article allayed a number of my doubts about the
presence of Candesa in Nepal. The image in question is probably the earliest
of those discussed here by a considerable margin, for it stands facing South on
a platform a few yards to the North East of the lihga of the sixteenth-century
Mahendresvara temple at Hanumandhoka in Kathmandu (Plate 18D). 91 Alone
among the Nepalese images I have seen, this figure holds an axe in his upraised
left hand, instead of a chisel-like object in his lower right hand. He therefore
holds exactly the same implements as the four-armed visualisations prescribe
and as can be observed in numerous South Indian sculptures discussed above,
including those of PLATES 8 and 12-13.
Plate 18D. Four-armed, one-faced Candesa placed to the North East of the four-
faced lihga in the Mahendresvara temple at Hanumandhoka in Kathmandu. The
temple was founded by Mahendramalla in the sixteenth century. The deity's up-
per hands hold a trident and axe, and the lower two hands hold an aksamala
(indistinct in the photo) and a kamandalu. Like numerous Nepalese images of
91 The temple was constructed by Mahendramalla, who ruled in Kathmandu c. 1560-
1574 AD: see SLUSSER 1982:190-1. I am grateful to Dr. Diwakar ACHARYA for
guiding me to this temple.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
this figure (for instance that at the Ranamuktesvara temple), he is surmounted
by a stone chatra, which in this case may be of more recent date than the sculp-
ture. Once again, this may be in imitation of the CHATRA above the sculpture
in the Pasupati complex, whose supporting column has the inscription that men-
tions Chatracandesvara. As I was examining this figure, a passer-by, apparently
a local, told me that it was 'Kamesvara'. Photo: Kei Kataoka.
In the above discussion I have been attempting to rationalise the discrepancies
between these Nepalese images known as 'Siva-Kamadeva' with the four-armed
visualisation that is widespread in Saiddhantika literature; in other words I
have been assuming that the images reflect the visualisation. But Acharya's
assumption (2005:210ff) is the reverse: the prescriptions derive in his view from
the sculpture, and perhaps from a particular sculpture in the Pasupati tem-
ple. For the image in the South-East corner of the Pasupati temple courtyard,
which faces away from the lifiga rather than towards it, has its back to a column
that supports a stone chattra and bears a seventh-century inscription recording
a donation to Pasupata teachers and beginning with an invocation to Chatra-
candesvara, who is there praised as the supreme deity of the universe (. . .jagad
idam akhilam yo 'srjad. . . ). Like several other Nepalese sculptures, this one
(which I cannot myself see, since photography and non-Hindus are forbidden
there) stands thus 'beneath a parasol (chatra) made of stone at the top of a pil-
lar' (Acharya 2005:209), and the pillar that supports the parasol is inscribed
with what could be assumed to be his name, among other details. According to
Acharya, the image represents Chatracandesvara, in other words Candesvara
with a parasol, and, even though the image is 'medieval' and so not of the same
date as the original which 'may have been destroyed in some natural calamity or
during the Muslim invasion' (ACHARYA 2005:214), nonetheless 'it is possible that
the attributes of the original image were copied onto the present image' (ibid.).
Now the main focus of Acharya's article is actually the so-called
'Mathura Pillar inscription' of 380/381 AD, edited by Bhandarkar (1931),
in which ACHARYA proposes to read jayati ca bhagavaln candah] rudradando
[']gra[na]yako nityam (2005:209) where BHANDARKAR had read the palaeo-
graphically similar but non-sensical jayati bhagavaln dandah]. . . and proposed
to correct, partly on metrical grounds (since he believed this to be a half-line
of arya), to jayati bhagavan dandah sa. . . Sculpted on to the pillar below the
inscription is a three-eyed figure wielding a club in his right hand and another
(but apparently quite different) 'unidentificable object' almost hidden by his left
hand, which is clutched to the left of his stomach. Acharya proposes that this
figure is 'Canda', in other words Siva himself in the form regarded as supreme
at this point in time by at least certain Pasupatas. Furthermore, he suggests
(2005:217) that '[t]here is thus all reason to identify the sculptures of figures
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Who is Candesa ?
previously assumed to be standing figures of Lakulisa as depicting rather Can da
or Candesvara'. He suggests (2005:216) that it is probable that
. . . Canda was a pre-Lakulisa deity accepted in all schools of the Pasupatas. Af-
terwards he was downgraded to a minor deity but remained in Saiva temples as
one of Siva's ganas.
In other words, Acharya's view appears to be that the various sculptures placed
to the South East or North East of Saiva shrines across Nepal and now popularly
known as Kamadeva, Kamesvara, or, to art -historians, as Siva-Kamadeva are
imitations of a lost seventh-century representation of Chatracandesvara in the
South-East of the courtyard in the Pasupati temple. This is in turn the ultimate
source of a four-armed prescription for the visualisation of Candesa in texts of
the Saiva Siddhanta, a religion in which the fierce form of the supreme deity has
been relegated to the rank of the receiver of nirmdlya of a newer supreme deity,
the mild, lacto-vegetarian Sadasiva. As for the mistaken name identity, this is of
course not difficult to explain (2005:216, fn. 35): 'the general populace takes the
image of Candesvara to be Kamadeva, not recognizing the ithyphallic element as
a symbol of yogic achievement'. (Confusion, furthermore, seems easier to account
for in the Nepalese context than in the relatively codified world of post-Chola
iconography in the Tamil-speaking South, for one becomes accustomed, in Nepal,
to seeing a profusion of Buddhist, Vaisnava and Saiva sculptures of all periods
jostling one another in the same compound.)
Now this model, if accepted, might explain how Candesa may have entered
the tantric trandition and it would account for the Nepalese data, but can it
explain the evolution of Candesa's iconography elsewhere? There seems to be
no absolutely firm reason why even seated forms such as the two-armed, club-
bearing Candesa that we see in Devarmalai (Plate 5) should not indeed have
developed out of the Pasupata iconographic tradition that produced the figure
on the 'Mathura Pillar Inscription', and we shall later consider the positions in
which such figures appear; but first let us finish speaking of the four-armed form.
Given the prestige of the Pasupati temple, it is not impossible that sur-
rounding temples should have chosen to copy both the iconography and the
South-Eastern location of its 'Candesvara' image; but is it likely that a variant
of this four-armed visualisation should come to be adopted from an image in
Kathmandu as the Saiddhantika standard? Of course there may have been
many images in Nepal by the time the iconography came first to be described
in Saiddhantika literature (as mentioned above, the earliest description known
to me is that in the pre-tenth-century Mayasangraha), but if so, what has
happened to those images? All the Nepalese images known to me, have been
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
dated by others to well after the tenth century. It therefore seems to me not
unlikely that the image now next to the seventh-century Chatracandesvara
inscription does not reflect the iconography of the seventh-century image, and
that it might instead be a 'medieval' sculpture influenced by the Saiddhantika
visualisation.
A further problem with the theory is that, even if we accept ACHARYA's
reading of the Mathura inscription, we could nevertheless, as Professor Hans
Barker has suggested to me (letter of 20.viii.2008), dispute the identification of
the figure: candah could be an adjective, 'fierce', and the real proper name would
then be rudradandah. We could therefore assume the figure to be rather a per-
sonified ayudhapuruasa representing Rudra's weapon, the stick. This is perhaps
still more likely if we accept that this is a half-line in arya and insert sa before
rudradandah to repair both metre and sandhi. 92 But then again, as we shall see
below, it is not inconceivable that Candesa should have been at certain points
in his development an ayudhapurusa, nor is it impossible that his name should
have begun as an adjective.
Yet another weakness in the theory, perhaps, is the assumption that
Chattracandesvara was 'the' name of a supreme deity. For might it not instead
have been simply the name of Siva installed in a particular temple? 93
In short, ACHARYA's theory is certainly open to criticism at more than one
juncture. Even if we accept his identification of the four-armed, standing, ithy-
phallic figures placed to the South-East or North-East of linga-shrines in Nepal,
the line of development he has suggested does not seem plausible in all its de-
tails. I am nonetheless inclined to believe that the four-armed, ithyphallic figures
might indeed be Candesvaras, as Acharya has proposed, since it seems to me
possible that their iconography is intended to be an expression of the four-armed
visualisation that is widespread in Saiddhantika literature. As for their being
often placed in the South-East, perhaps that is the result of imitation of the
Pasupati shrine, in which such a figure is placed next to an inscription praising
Chatracandesvara.
Is Candesa one of Siva's hypostases?
As for ACHARYA's notion that Candesa is nothing but a 'tamed' form of what
was originally a Pasupata group's supreme deity, this seems not inconceivable.
Sanderson has recorded another such strategy of expressing transcendence
over Atimarga groups, namely that of incorporating their chief divinities —
92 The assumption that it is arya is not unproblematic, for, as BHANDARKAR explains
(1931:1), there is no space in which the second half-line could have been inscribed.
93 Cf., for example, the Siva called Drmicandesvara or Drimicandesvra (Bisschop
2006:220).
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Who is Candesa ?
Dhruva, Ksemisa and Brahmanaspati — at relatively lowly levels in Saiva
tantric cosmography (SANDERSON 2006b:199-200). And perhaps the idea
receives some support from the various tantric passages that refer to Candesa
being Siva himself or as being the manifestation of Siva's own anger. Thus, for
example, Somasambhupaddhati SP1 V:2ab (KSTS 292cd):
rudragniprabhavam candam kajjalabham bhayanakam...
. . . terrifying, collyrium-black, Canda, born of the fire [of the anger] of Rudra. . .
Mrgendra kriyapada 8:170ab:
candarupah svayam sambhur nirunaddhy api niskrtam
Sambhu himself, taking the form of Canda, punishes even one who has been made
complete [by initiation, if he should transgress the rules].
Older than the above is the account of Canda's worship in the Matanga-
paramesvara (kriyapada 9:45b-54): 94
matanga uvaca
sakter yagdvasdne tu ydgo 'sty atra neti vd 9:45
candisasyoddhrta mantrah kimartham paramesvara
paramesvara uvaca
na kevalam pura mantras candisasyoddhrta mune 9:46
purnendusannibham casya mandalam paribhasitam
sahgam tatra nivesyadau candisam tahkadharinam 9:47
sarvasvetopacarena yagante pujayet sada
sobhasya saktitah karya vibhavasyanurupatah 9:48
bhaktyavistasya bhagavams candisah paramesvarah
prasannah sarvakaryani sadhakasydmitadyuteh 9:49
pradadati manahsthani stotrenakrstamurtiman
namas te bhutabhavyesa sivakayatmane namah 9:50
mahograrupine visvanathaya paratmane
rudrayamitavirydya parvatyatmabhavaya ca 9:51
saktigarbhaya candaya visokaya mahatmane
jvalatparasuhastaya dandine sukapardine 9:52
namas te visvarupaya namas te gnivapusmate
namas te sarvasarvaya jagatah karanaya ca 9:53
stutvaivam varadam natham candisam candarupinam
astahgapranipatena santarpyagnau ksamapayet 9:54
94 The selected apparatus below only gives information where I propose modifying
Bhatt's text, or where the readings are potentially significant for our discussion.
One difference from Bhatt's text is not signalled: I have consistently adopted
Candisa where Bhatt has preferred Candesa. The Kashmirian manuscripts here
are tj and R, and the oldest source is the palm-leaf Nepalese manuscript C.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
45c sakter ] C; sakti- BHATT • 45d 'sty atra ] C; 'nyas tatra BHATT • 47d
tankadharinam ] BHATT; khadgadharinam KH, GH, CH, J • 48a sarvasveto- ] U,
R, C; sarvayajno- BHATT • 54b candarupinam ] C, U, R, BHATT; tankadharinam
K; tahkarupinam O, N; khadgarupinam KH, GH, CH, J • 54d santarpyagnau
ksamapayet ] O, K, KH, GH, N, C, CH, J; pranipatya visarjayet BHATT (U, R?)
Matariga spoke:
At the end of the worship of Sakti, is there or is there not another worship? What
were the mantras of Candisa raised for, o Lord?
The Lord spoke:
Not only have the mantras of Candisa been raised earlier, o sage, but his mandala,
which has the form of a full (!) moon, has also been described. After inserting
Candisa, who holds the axe, into that [mandala], together with his body-part-
mantras, one should invariably worship him at the end of the [other] worship
using all white offerings. He should be adorned as far as one is able, in accordance
with his power. The supreme Lord Candisa, when pleased, and when attracted
by this [following] hymn in such a way as to become physically present, grants
all results that may be in his heart to the sadhaka of infinite radiance who is
full of devotion: "Veneration to you, Lord of past and future! Veneration to you
who are Siva's embodiment, to you whose form is great and fierce, to you who are
Lord of the Universe, Supreme, Rudra, to you whose strength is unmeasurable,
to you who are the son of ParvatI, to you who contain power, to you who are fierce
(candaya), griefless, great, to you who hold an axe in your hand, to you who hold
a staff, to you who have beautifully braided hair (sukapardineV. Veneration to you
have are the universe! Veneration to you who are have a body of fire! Veneration
to you Sarvasarva, who are the cause of the universe!" Having praised the boon-
giving, fierce-formed Lord Candisa in this way, after a prostration with eight parts
[of the body touching the ground], one should satiate [him by making offerings] in
the fire and cause him to forgive [shortcomings].
The above passage is somewhat anomalous in several respects — the stipulation
of a round mandala (rather than a crescent one), the emphasis on white offer-
ings (cf. Matanga kriyapada 1:57-8), the absence of any mention of nirmalya,
his bearing both axe and staff (52cd), his being Siva in form (50d), creator of
the universe (53cd) and yet at the same time son of ParvatI (51d), 95 his being
mentioned explicitly only at the end of the initiation involving the yaga of Sakti
(which refers in fact to the worship of the VYOMAVYAPIMANTRA in the nava-
nabhamandala) and not at the end of the other varieties of initiation 96 — but I
95 Cf. GRANOFF 2006:90-1.
96 Ramakantha in his commentary on the above quoted verses seems to imply that the
worship of Candesa is not to be supplied at the end of the other forms of initiation
that the Matanga teaches; but his commentary on kriyapada 7:36c-37 implies the
reverse. There appears to be no clear indication in the tantra of which is intended.
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Who is Candesa ?
have cited it here not for its anomalies concerning ritual context, iconography
and mythology, but rather for the implications that it contains that Candesa is
Siva, even if the implications are at once contradicted.
Another indication of Candesa's identity with Siva is to be found in a frag-
ment of the Pardkhya quoted by Vidyakantha II in the Bhavacudamani (f. 61v):
uktam ca srimatparakhye
candarupah svayam rudro badhnati samayaksatan iti.
Rudra Himself, in the form of Canda, punishes those who break the post-initiatory
rules. 97
We find such notions even in later South Indian sources (even though they con-
tradict the well-known South Indian aetiological myth), for example in Purva-
Kdmika 4:525ab:
krodhamsah paramesasya candesa iti klrtitah
Candesa is taught to be a partfial incarnation] of the anger of the Supreme Lord.
Plate 19. Candesa in the Satyagirisvara temple Senganur, Kumbakonam Taluk,
Tanjore Dt. Senganur is traditionally the locus of the South Indian legend of
Vicarasarman. Note the skull in the heavy jatabhara and the curled leaf as an
ornament (pattrakundala) in the deity's left ear. Photo: IFP/EFEO.
Furthermore, it could be argued that an identity relationship with Siva seems
also sometimes to be hinted at in the sculptures. This is particularly clear in the
Nepalese images, which may have a skull and a crescent moon in the headdress
(e.g. HUNTINGTON Scan No. 0017157), and which are all ithyphallic. This is
much less clear in the South Indian icons, but there are hints: in Senganur, for
example, the heavy jatabhara is surmounted with a skull (PLATE 19) and the
left ear lobe is filled with a rolled leaf ornament (pattrakundala), as on many
South Indian sculptures of Siva, recalling Siva's granting Parvati the left side of
his body (see, e.g., Plates 1 AND 31). But in fact emblems that are distinctive
of Siva, such as the skull, are often used to indicate not that a figure is Siva, but
rather simply that it is agana of Siva or in some sense Saiva, even if the emblems
contain allusions to myths now associated with Siva. 98 Moreover a deity that is
97 One could perhaps translate 'punishes infringements of the post-initiatory rules',
but one would in that case expect a neuter; I therefore assume that samayaksatan
is intended to refer to the rule-breakers, which entails either taking ksatan in the
sense of ksatavatah or taking the compound to mean 'diminished with respect to
the post-initiatory rules'.
98 On the shifting relationship between Siva and a number of his Ganas, see Granoff
2006, in particular p. 80, in which she expresses the impression she has received
from examing different versions of Saiva myths in the Puranas, particularly the old
Skandapurana, thus: 'It is my contention that Saivism represents the culmination
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
an incarnation of Siva's anger can as easily be thought different from Siva as
identical to him.
Plate 20. Candesa in the Manikanthesvara temple in Padur (Patur),
Tirukkalukkundram Taluk, Chengleput Dt. The image faces South and is
to the North-East of the lihga. No aedicule houses the image. N. Ramaswamy
drew my attention to this sculpture. Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Plate 21. Detail of the Candesa at the Manikanthesvara temple in Padur show-
ing the skull in low relief on top of the jatabhara. Photo: EFEO (G Ravindran).
But then there is also the evidence of the mantras of Canda and the fact it is
sometimes prescribed that they should be installed in the image used for the
worship of Siva. Thus, for example, in the Pihgaldmata as quoted by Vidya-
kantha II in his Bhdvacuddmani (Jammu MS No. 5291, f. 61v) we read:
uktam ca srlmatpihgalamate
naivedyapanayam krtva vidhisesam visarjya ca
nyasya candesvaram murtau krodham daivad vinirgatam
yajed iti.
Having performed the removal of the food-offering [and] the remainder of the rite,
[andl having invited [Siva] to depart, he should install Candesvara in the image,
[who is] the anger that came forth from the divinity.
In a fragment of the early Pauskara-Pdramesvara (Cambridge University Li-
brary MS Add. 1049, f. '8'r) we find the following: 99
sadyojatam samarabhya candabrahmani vinyaset
sadyojatam pascimena vamadevam udagdisi
daksinayam aghoram tu pracyam vaktram nivesayet
lihgamurdhani isanam gandhapuspady anukramat
sadyojatam samarabhya ] conj.; sadyojatasamarasya MS
Beginning with SADYOJATA, he should install the CANDA-BRAHMAMANTRAs: he
should place sadyojata in the West, vamadeva in the North, aghora in the
South, TATPURUSA (vaktram) in the East and Isana in the head of the lihga. [He
should offer] incense, flowers and so forth in due order.
Not only are the mantras of Canda to be installed in the same image that has
been used for the worship of the main deity, but those mantras also parallel the
of a development in which the ganas, originally totally independent figures, gradu-
ally became identified with Siva and absorbed into his larger narrative'. She draws
attention to the fact that later versions of certain myths show Siva arrogating to
himself the actions and identities of the ganas to whom they belonged in earlier
versions of the same myths.
99 Cf. SP4, III:57ff and Suprabheda KP 47:12.
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Who is Candesa ?
principal mantras of Siva in that they are BRAHMAMANTRAs. Similarly, in other
sources, such as the passages of the Matahga and Jndnaratndvali quoted above,
although we do not find BRAHMAMANTRAs assigned to Candesa, we find instead
that he has a set of body-part-mantras, just as the principal deity has. 100
Candesa and nirmdlya in the Saiva Siddhanta
Returning to the point we had reached in Jnanasambhu's presentation of the rit-
ual, once Candesa has been visualised and worshipped with his mantras ranged
around him (bhogdngopetam), the nirmdlya is offered to him, he is invited to
make good any short-comings in the performance of the ritual, 101 and then he is
invited to depart.
Now in the early texts of the Saiva Siddhanta, it is often not made explicit
whether or not a Candapuja should follow ordinary regular daily Siva- worship
(nityapujd), for Canda is commonly simply not mentioned. This is the case, for
instance, in the shorter recensions of the Kdlottara, one of which, the recen-
sion in 200 verses, was the source on which the authors of all surviving ritual
manuals based their prescriptions. 102 Among pre-tenth-century scriptures, the
Kirana, has a brief mention of offering nirmdlya to Canda after regular daily
worship, 103 and so does the Sarvajndnottara, a mention which we have seen
100 Cf. Nisvasamula 5:23 and 6:23-4, where Canda has the following bijamantras:
one for his asana, one for Canda, and five for his ahgas. Cf. also Kirana 23:4-5
(mulamantra [CAM] + 5 ahgamantras).
101 This function of making complete a rite may perhaps occur in some contexts without
any connection with nirmdlya, for it seems to appear in an inscription of 1268 AD
recording the completion of the construction of a temple to Harihara in a place called
Harihar in Davanagere Taluk, Chitaldroog Dt, Karnataka, by a certain Soma-
natha, a high officer under the Hoysala Narasimha III, who was also the founder
of the celebrated temple nearby at Somanathapur (thus Narasimhachar 1917:1).
The second half of verse 21, consisting largely in vocative epithets of Somanatha,
reads: vairisrihara gayigovala bhuvi gamdapemdara te camdisah subhavaibhavam
vitanutad acandracandadyuti. "O stealer of your enemies' glory, o gayigovala, o
gamdapemdara on earth, may Candisa ensure that the success of your merit should
spread for as long as the moon and the fierce-rayed [sun still shine]." Among the
images whose installation is mentioned is Visvaksena (verse 19), the Vaisnava coun-
terpart of Candesvara, who will be discussed below. See Epigraphia Carnatika IX
(Rice 1903), pp. 44-47 and 74-8 for Davanagere Taluk.
102 See Sanderson 2004:358, fn. 24.
103 There is considerable variation between the sources that transmit the Kirana at
this point in the text, but the purport of the Nepalese and South Indian versions is
the same. 14:46c-47b in the Devakottai edition read as follows:
lihgamadhyagatam dhyatva devadevam sadasivam
naivedyam copasamhrtya ksipec candaya tat punah
In the Nepalese manuscript of 924 ad, however, this is worded thus (NGMPP A
40/3, f. 30r):
lihgamadhyagatam dhyatva pujam ksipyesakonatah
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
quoted by Jnanasambhu. But these brief mentions do not make clear whether a
full candapujd was required at this point: it seems possible that it was not, given
the brief treatment of the nirmdlya at this point in these two works and from the
absence of any mention of it in other early sources.
In other words, Somasambhu's remarks quoted here by Jnanasambhu about
occasions when worship of Canda was not required perhaps present explicitly
what is unexpressed in some early tantras, namely that there were many con-
texts where there was no nirmdlya (cf. SP2, 111:69, p. 282) and therefore no need
of making offerings to Canda. We should notice that private portable substrates
of worship (cale) are included among those for which the worship of Canda is
not required. 104 Now if we accept, as BRUNNER firmly concludes after many
years of studying the question, that the rituals of the Siddhanta as described by
Somasambhu were those of individual initiates, and not, on the whole, described
from the point of view of priests in temples, 105 then this is significant. For it ap-
pears as though for Somasambhu, Candesvara is primarily worshipped in fixed,
man-made lingas, i.e. those of temples.
Now the Brhatkdlottara, quoted by Jnanasambhu just below in the same
passage, appears to mark a new development: it prescribes Canda-worship
at the end of Siva-worship in all contexts in the Saiva Siddhanta. This text,
we reiterate, appears not to have been known to the eleventh-century author
Somasambhu, and the first quotations of it appear to be those of Jnanasambhu
in his twelfth-century Jhanaratndvali. For some centuries from Jnanasambhu
onwards, at least up to (but not including) Appayadiksita, the South Indian
authors of ritual manuals accept the position of the Brhatkdlottara, thus
confirming in the minds of many that Candesa is a deity particular to the
Saiva Siddhanta and found in no other tradition (netare tantre, na vdme, na ca
daksine).
Of course it is not easy to provide textual evidence to confirm that the
association is less firm than long supposed, for among the tantric scriptural
traditions Candesa as the receiver of nirmdlya really is found almost exclusively
in Saiddhantika literature. 106 And the relation between Candesa and the
naivedyadim tato hrtya ksipe candasya tat punah.
104 Thus also SP2, 111:69:
ratnahemadilihgesu cale citre pradaksine
gurusv api na nirmalyam vyakhyasu pratimasu ca.
105 gp4 ; p v: 'Ainsi repondons-nous enfin clairement a une question toujours presente :
cette paddhati est-elle ecrite pour le rituel prive ou pour le rituel public ? Notre
reponse est maintenant ferme : il s'agit de rituel prive seulement.'
106 A handful of counter-examples may be cited nonetheless. In chapter 26 of the Trika
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Who is Candesa ?
Siddhanta is also difficult to challenge on the basis of South Indian sculptures.
For the Southern images of Candesa that we know of and that appear to be
ancient are either undatable, or they come from a period in which we know
that the Siddhanta already had a footing in the South. Kalidos (1988) has
assumed that the late eighth- or early ninth-century Candesa in the Saiva
rock-cut shrine at Malaiyadippatti (Malaiyatippatti) is the earliest image in
South India, but in fact it is rather the earliest image of which one can assert
beyond doubt that it was deliberately placed in the North-East, with the out-flow
scripture, the Tantrasadbhava, we read:
tathd vai candanatho'pi dvaitadvaitesu klrtitah 59
dvaitadvaitesu yad dattam naivedyam paramesvare
tarn tu devi taducchistam candanathe nivedayet 60
Candanatha is proclaimed equally (tathd vai) in both 'dualist' and 'non-dualist'
[cultsl: whatever food is offered to the Supreme Lord, whether in cults that are
'dualist' or 'non-dualist', one should offer that, O Goddess, when it has been aban-
doned by Him, to Candanatha.
Such nirmalya, it is explained, may alternatively be cast in fire or water. Then the
tantra remarks:
dravyam candesvaram nama purvadattam mayi priye
bhaksanad bandhate devas candesah paramesvarah 63
63b. mayi ] conj.; maya DYCZKOWSKI • 63c. bandhate ] conj.; vatvate DYCZKOWSKI
What has previously been given to me, My Dear, is called Candesvara-substance;
if you eat it, the god Candesa, great lord, punishes [you].
I have come across one other plainly non-Saiddhantika tantric account of Canda-
puja in a stray chapter on ff. 6v-7r of National Archives, Kathmandu, MS 1-1114,
NGMPP A 49/5, which Diwakar Acharya had kindly drawn to my attention for the
fragment it preserves of the Jnanaratnavali. Its colophon appears to read (sugges-
tion of Diwakar Acharya in a letter of 12.ii.2006): iti srimate caryapadavaftarite
mula?)mnaye candesvarayagas trtiyah. The tantra is a conversation between Kub-
jika and Bhairava, who is the teacher, and it explains how to install Candesa in
a mandala in the North-Eastern corner of the yaga-area in order to give him the
nirmalya. The visualisation is short and rather different from what we have seen
so far (4cd, ff. 6v-7r)
pujayed gandhapuspadyais tankapanim trisulinam
"dyais tankapanim ] conj.; °dyai tankapaxnix ni MS
One should worship him with unguents, flowers and so forth, an axe in his hand,
bearing a trident.
Within the bhairavasrotas we know that two recensions of the Svacchandatantra
included Candesa: he occurs in chapters on expiation from the Aghoresvari-
svacchanda (32:1 and 32:28) and the Rasasvacchanda (39:5-6) that are included
in Hrdayasiva's Prayascittasamuccaya. (The numeration is that of R. Sathya-
NARAYANAN's transcription, which is to be incorporated as an appendix into a forth-
coming edition of Trilocanasiva's Prayascittasamuccaya.)
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
from the linga (there is here no pranala to speak of) apparently channelled
to run round the edge of the cave so as to pass beneath Candesa's feet. 107 As
EDHOLM rightly points out (1998:54), two images that are certainly earlier are
to be found in the North-East corner of the enclosure-wall in the Kailasanatha
temple in Kanchipuram. One of them is in its original location to the North-East
of a linga, but embedded in the enclosure wall. This two-armed, one headed,
axe-wielding image is now entirely covered in stucco and its original features
can only be guessed at (see Plate 22A). The other (Plate 22B) is an extremely
weather-worn free-standing image which has lately been moved in front of the
fixed one (old photographs reveal that it was not there until recently).
Plate 22A Concealed behind the disfiguring stucco is what may be the oldest
Candesa in South India whose position in the North East is indisputable. It is
placed facing South, in the North-East corner of the inner enclosure wall of the
early eighth-century Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram. Directly opposite, in
the South-East corner, is its counterpart: a stucco-covered bas-relief sculpture of
Vinayaka. Photo: Valerie Gillet.
It seems reasonable to assume that this weathered figure was the sculpture that
originally stood in the open, inside the enclosure, to the North-East of the linga.
For although the construction of a miniature temple to house the South-facing
Candesa in the North-East has become standard, 108 in many early sites such a
107 The image is illustrated (Fig. 35) and its position and late-eighth-century or early
ninth-century date discussed by GOODALL et al. (2005:58-9). We were unaware at
the time of Kalidos' article of 1988.
108 It might be supposed that the construction of such shrines was a practice influenced
by the two largest examples of the genre, the early eleventh-century Candesvara
shrines in the great temples at Tanjore and Gangaikondacolapuram. But one should
of course be cautious about assuming that these unusual temples were models for
parochial shrines. And such shrines evidently began to be constructed earlier. We
have referred earlier (GOODALL et al. 2005:186, fn. 128) to a tenth-century inscrip-
tion referring to Candesvara on the stone wall of the shrine to Candesvara in the
Putarjunadeva temple at Tirupputaimarutur, Ambasamudram Taluk, Tirunelveli
District (SII, Vol. XIV, No. 68, p. 46). Professor Leslie Orr has now pointed out to me
(letter of 19.viii.2008) that much further North an inscription in 'characters of about
the 10th century A.D.' records that a certain Sattukutti Madevan, whose initiatory
name was Vamasiva, consecrated the image of Candesvara and constructed a shrine
of stone for him in the temple of Tiruttondisvaram-utaiya-nayanar at Tirunama-
nallur, now Panruti Taluk, South Arcot District (ARIE 1939-40 No. 241, p. 59).
The figure now occupying the aedicule for Candesvara, is, according to Paranan
(2006:37), of the twelfth century, but from the photographs of Emmanuel Francis
(and according to Emmanuel Francis' judgement after examining the image itself)
it seems that it might well be much earlier, in other words that it might be the im-
age referred to in the inscription. But there is what appears to be a yet older image,
now displaced to the west verandah, and, as Emmanuel Francis has pointed out
to me, a photograph has been published of it by Paranan (2006:162).
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Who is Candesa ?
miniature temple is either absent or of very recent construction and early fig-
ures of Candesa seem often more weathered than the other sculptures of a site.
The Kailasanatha in Kanchipuram is the very temple in which we find (in the
inscription round the main shrine) one of the first explicit allusions to the Saiva
Siddhanta in the Tamil-speaking South. 109
Plate 22B This was perhaps originally placed without covering or shrine in the
courtyard to the North East of the lihga in the Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipu-
ram. If so, it would be one of the earliest figures of Candesa sculpted in the
round for receiving nirmalya for which an approximate date could be advanced.
It is true that there is now no trace in the enclosure that shows where the figure
might have been placed, nor (as Dr. Charlotte Schmid and Emmanuel Francis
have pointed out to me) is there any clear echo in the iconographical programme
that might confirm that it was once there. The hypothesis will probably remain
impossible to confirm or exclude. The weapon held in the right arm has broken
off, so all that can now be discerned is that he sat in the now typical posture
(except that his left leg rather than his right dropped down) and that he wore a
heavy jatabhara and earrings. Damage and stucco have effaced all other details.
Above and behind him in the corner (only a leg is visible) is the figure illustrated
in Plate 22A. Photo: Valerie Gillet.
It is clear from the sculptural record, however, that temples with no connec-
tion with the Saiva Siddhanta nevertheless installed images of Candesa. We
find a number of such sculptures among the ruins at Kodumbalur (Kotumpalur),
which a ninth-century inscription reveals to have been associated with a matha
of Kalamukhas (asitavaktra), and a fine eleventh-century sculpture (PLATE 23)
survives at Tiruvotriyur (Tiruvorriyur), which appears to have been controlled
by adherents of the Somasiddhanta (see GOODALL et al. 2005, p. 189 and 112,
fn. 60).
Plate 23. Candesa in the Saiva temple at Tiruvotriyur (Tiruvorriyur) in North-
ern Madras. The style of the image suggests that it was produced at the same
time and perhaps by the same hand as the famous skull-bowl-bearing, trident-
wielding figure now known as Gaullsvara (compare Plates 12-14 in KRISHNA
Murthy 1985), whose shrine has an inscription that dates its construction to
c. 1068 ad and that calls it the shrine of Patampakkanayakadeva (Krishna
Murthy 1985:50). A tenth- or eleventh-century statue with the same iconog-
raphy as 'Gaullsvara' survives in the modern Kamaksi temple in Darasuram and
is described by L'HERNAULT (1987:1, photo 3) as 'Siva dans son aspect de dieu
109 p or a di scuss ion of a punning Saiva meaning intended for several words in the verse
in question, see GOODALL 2004: xix, fn. 17. Slightly earlier evidence is to be found
in the Kuram plates, as mentioned by GOODALL et al. 2005:112-13, fn. 61.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
supreme des Pasupata'. Photo: IFP/EFEO.
The thirteenth-century Siddhantasekhara of Visvanatha (quoted by BRUNNER
in SP4:241) claims that Canda was considered the chastiser of transgressions for
various Atimarga groups and that his worship was therefore common to them:
saivdndm cdpi saktanam somasiddhdntavedindm 232
pancdrthakdlavaktrdndm bhaktimdrgajusdm nrndm
sdstd candesvaras tesdm svasvdcdravilahghindm 233
candandtham prapannd ye na tesdm bhayakdranam
tasmdt sarvais ca sampujyas candesas tv avicdratah 234
232c. saivanam capi saktanam ] Ed.; tatha dipte saiva[g]ame BRUNNER 110 • 233d.
"vilarighinam ] BRUNNER; "vilambinam Ed.
Saivas, Saktas, those who know the Somasiddhanta, Pancarthika-Pasupatas,
Kalamukhas, men who delight in the path of devotion — of these Candesvara is
the chastiser when they transgress their own various rules of conduct. Those
who venerate Candanatha have no reason to fear. Therefore, everybody should
worship Candesa without reflecting [upon the wisdom of doing so].
Other evidence is furnished by an account of pancavaranapuja in an undated
chapter attributed to the Pampdmdhdtmya which Vasundhara FlLLIOZAT has
published (2001:104-18) under the title Kaldmukhasivapujdpaddhati: the of-
fering of the naivedya to Candesvara is prescribed in verse 82. But even if we
establish Candesa's presence in Pasupata traditions in the second millennium
AD, this does not of course necessarily help us to establish that he originated in
one of those traditions. It is clear, after all, that the notion of a nirmalyadevata
could easily spread horizontally by imitation. 111
Visvaksena and other nirmdlya-devatds
The best documented parallel case is that of Visvaksena as the nirmdlya-devatd
for Visnu in the Pancaratra and Vaikhanasa traditions. And here, as Gupta
has demonstrated (1976:84), the parallelism between Candesa and Visvaksena
consists in rather more than their both receiving nirmalya.
Here we encounter in the tradition of the Saiva Agamas an exact parallel to
Visvaksena in Candesvara. Both are commanders-in-chief and leaders of the
ganas in their respective pantheons. Both function as nirmalyadevata in their
respective cults, and in temples both act as supreme custodians.
110 It is not clear to me what the source is for Brunner's deviating readings here.
111 Since Pasupata ascetics were themselves supposed to wear the nirmalya, it could
be argued that it would be unnatural for their tradition to be the one in which a
reir/nafya-receiving deity arose, but see fn. 152 on p. 414.
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Who is Candesa ?
Further parallels may be mentioned: Visvaksena is to be placed in the North
East (GUPTA 1976:77); he is a manifestation of Visnu himself (1976:85-6); and
his iconography, in which there is some small variation (as to whether he should
raise a threatening finger or hold a club, for instance) shows him with two of
the most distinctive attributes of Visnu (the conch and the disc) and seated, as
Candesa most usually is, with one foot tucked up to rest on the platform on which
he sits and the other dangling below it. Visvaksena, however, seems to have
rather little 'personality', and this is enough to suggest that he might have been
a sort of 'copy' of the Saiva figure contrived by Vaisnavas calquing their ritual
system on Saiva models. There are other factors that suggest this, the most im-
portant being the apparent absence of Visvaksena in early sources, whether writ-
ten (Gupta 1976:75-6) or sculptural. We may note, for example, that Visvaksena
appears to be absent from the unpublished early Pancaratra samhitas transmit-
ted in Nepalese palm-leaf manuscripts and currently being edited by Diwakar
ACHARYA, such as the Svayambhuvapancaratra and the Devdmrta.
Plate 24. Visvaksena from the Varadarajaperumal temple in Kadalangudi
(Katalankuti), Mayavaram Taluk, Nagapattinam Dt. In some sculptures one
finds varada or tarjana instead oiabhaya, and on others the axe may be missing.
Photo: IFP/EFEO 571-06.
Another minor point that suggests his dependence on Candesa is that
Visvaksena figures flout the rule that ancillary figures in Vaisnava shrines
should either be seated or standing according to the stance of the principal
image. Gupta (1976:77) suggests that the fact that Visvaksena is always seated
may be because of his 'high status', but it seems more likely that it is because he
is simply calqued upon Candesa. 112
Of course Visvaksena's absence in the sculptural record may be an illusion:
he bears no implement that would distinguish him from Visnu and so it is only
context that enables one to identify sculptures of him. Note that in glossy books
of South Indian bronzes now divorced from their contexts in temple life and
housed in museums there are often a handful of Candikesvara images, but no
Visvaksenas. And yet, for instance, in the recent catalogue of the Madras col-
ii2 Qf Tripathi 2004:352: "Canda is not offered worship in the Puja of Jagannatha.
His function has been taken over by Visvaksena but the expression 'Candanaivedya'
has remained which points towards a secondary character of Visvaksena, or at least,
towards the secondary nature of his function as a receiver of this Naivedya. In the
text of the NNP-Krama [scil.: Pujapaddhati of Niladrinatha], the word Canda oc-
curs as an adjective to Visvaksena which is an effort to bring Visvaksena into associ-
ation with Canda and to explain the name of this rite." The mantra which TRIPATHI
cites is: OM VAM VISVAKSENAYA namah. devaganaya candaya visvaksenaya
NAMAH.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
lection there are nine seated images identified as Visnu which could as easily be
identified as Visvaksena (Kannan 2003:218-225).
Plate 25. Siva crowning Candesvara on the North face of the ardhamandapa
of the Pallava-period (late eighth-century?) Muktesvara temple in Kanchipuram.
Canda's matted locks are here being coiffed and adorned by Siva, while Canda,
the supreme devotee, submissively inclines his head and clasps his hands in a
respectful anjali. It is possible, as Dr. Charlotte Schmid has suggested to me,
that the matted locks — like those of other South-facing Saiva deities in South
India, such as 'Daksinamurti' and Bhiksatana — are symbolic of his fierce nature,
and that their being coiffed and groomed is symbolic of his being tamed. Photo:
Valerie Gillet.
Plate 26. Visnu crowning a devotee on the East face of the Vaikunthaperumal
temple in Kanchipuram. The same submissive posture is used as in Plate 25.
Photo: Valerie Gillet.
Furthermore, a recent publication of Laksmi Narasimhan identifies a panel on
the Pallava-period Vaikunthaperumal temple in Kanchipuram as Visnu crown-
ing Visvaksena with his nirmalya (2007:330). FRANCIS, GILLET and SCHMID
(2005:599) record that the same interpretation was suggested, evidently inde-
pendently, by G. VlJAYAVENUGOPAL. They also record, however, that Adalbert
Gail has interpreted the image as Visnu crowning Prahlada. Now it is clear
that there is indeed a relation between the Pallava images showing the crowning
of Candesa and this Vaisnava image. Indeed much of the narrative iconography
of the Vaikunthaperumal consists of Vaisnava echoes and reworkings of Saiva
scenes (Francis, Gillet and Schmid 2005:599-601). But, as they point out,
the scene in question might show some other close devotee of Visnu. Given the
absence of other comparably early evidence for the existence of Visvaksena as a
nirmdlyadevatd, it seems to me unlikely to be a representation of the crowning
of Visvaksena, but the question remains open: 'Qui Visnu couronne-t-il ?' (ibid.).
Apart from Visvaksena there are other mr/na^ya-receivers, probably all
calqued upon Candesa, for other deities. A passage in the Naradapurana gives
a typical sort of list (1.67:99-100):
naivedyam ca tato dadydt tattaducchistabhojine
mahesvarasya candeso visvaksenas tathd hareh
canddmsus taraner vakratundas cdpi ganesituh
sakter ucchistacdnddlT proktd ucchistabhojinah
He should then give the food-offering to the particular remainder-eater of the god
in question. For Mahesvara there is Candesa and for Hari there is Visvaksena; for
the Sun there is Candamsu and for Ganesa there is Vakratunda; for Sakti there
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Who is Candesa ?
is Ucchistacandafl — these are taught to be the remainder-eaters.
I say that this is a typical sort of list, but some of the names here are perhaps not
the best known. GUPTA (1976:81) gives a number of other names, among which
Ucchistaganesa for Vinayaka and Tejascanda for Surya seem more commonly
used. (We have discussed Tejascanda and reproduced an image of Tejascanda
in GOODALL et al. 2005:55, 98-99 and Fig. 23.) Gupta also mentions Rakta-
canda, Nirmalyavasini, Nirmalyacandika, Batukanatha and Ucchistamatahgini;
but she does not mention the next most frequently represented nirmdlyadevatd
after Candesa, namely Candesvari, who is not his consort, 113 but rather the
nirmdlyadevatd of the Goddess in South Indian temples. Iconographically, she
is like most two-armed Candesvaras: her right hand holds an axe, her left arm
rests on her left thigh and she sits with one foot tucked up to rest on the plat-
form on which she sits and the other dangling below it. Her hair is wrapped up
in a chignon (jatdmukuta), as is Candesa's in many post-twelfth-century repre-
sentations. I do not know when images of Candesvari were first produced, but I
do not recall seeing any image that looked earlier than fourteenth-century Her
first appearances in literary sources may be only slightly earlier. 114 Her position
is quite commonly not to the North-East of the Goddess image, but rather to the
South-East. This is because a Goddess-shrine in a South Indian Saiva temple
complex is typically South-facing, has its prandla pointing East and so, from the
point of view of someone circumambulating the shrine, the image of Candesvari
is situated just beyond the prandla, just as Candesa is just beyond the prandla of
the shrine to Siva. She may be shown facing South, like Candesa, or facing West
into the wall of the Goddess shrine, just as Candesa faces South into the wall of
the Siva shrine. EDHOLM (1984:89) quotes a passage of the Kdlikdpurdna which
prescribes the offering of nirmdlya to her.
Plate 27. Candesa in a dedicated shrine at the Naltunaiyisvaran Temple at
Punjai (or Ketaramkontan Puncai), Mayavaram Taluk, Nagapattinam Dt. Notice
the flower on the top of his jata and the one above his right ear. There appears also
to be the trumpet of a dhattura flower (cf. Plate 31) on the left side of his head
above the band that goes round his forehead. He has a pattrakundala ornament
in his left ear. His left hand is either missing something that it once held, or it
displays the ahuya varada gesture. Beside him in the shrine, but not shown in
113 Candesa is in fact assigned a consort in a very few temples. His shrine in Punjai,
for instance, houses not just a statue of Candesa (see Plate 27), but also a much
later sculpture representing his spouse.
114 Purva-Karana 90:23. In the thirteenth-century Siddhantasekhara Gaurfs
nirmalya-receiving goddess, who is to be placed in the North-East, is called Amsini
(p. 617). See Brunner 1998 (SP4):274, fh. 22.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the photograph, is a much later statue of a female consort.
There is one other domain in which Candesa might have been imitated and that
is in early Tantric Buddhism. This suggestion was made to me by Dr. Kimiaki
Tanaka immediately after a version of this paper was delivered in Tokyo. He
suggested several parallels between Candesa and Acalanatha (Fudo in Japan),
a figure also known by a variety of other names, including Krodha and Canda-
maharosana. He pointed to this figure being seen as an emanation of the Bud-
dha Vairocana, and at the same time the latter's servant, to his consumption
of offerings, and to the fact that he is shown, in Japanese iconography, with
a flower on the top of his head (cf. Candesa in Plates 2, 5, 6, 15, 38, 39).
Acalanatha appears in a number of early Buddhist tantras that no longer sur-
vive in Sanskrit, such as the Trisamayarajatantra, the Vajrapdnyabhiseka and
the Mahdvairocandbhisambodhi. A brief account of Acala (and of his partner
Trailokyavijaya) as he appears in the last of these texts is given by LlNROTHE
(1999:151ff). LlNROTHE observes (1999:153) that candamahdrosana is a 'proba-
bly descriptive rather than titular' element in the dharanl of Acala, which occurs
in a few places in the Mahdvairocandbhisambodhi, and that this element subse-
quently became adopted as Acala's name (e.g. in the Candamahdrosanatantra).
But if the element in the mantra is indeed ancient, as it appears to be, 115 then it
could indicate some connection with Candesa, just like the element canda in at
least one mantra of Candesa's Vaisnava counterpart Visvaksena (see fn. 112 on
p. 391 above).
It is clear that a thorough study of these materials, which is beyond the scope
of this article, would be required before pronouncing on the matter. Furthermore,
Sanderson (letter of 12.X.2005) has suggested to me another figure who could
be an heir to Candesa's principal function in ritual, namely Ucchusma, whose
role in Buddhist and other sources he has briefly characterised in a recent arti-
cle (2007:196-200). In that characterisation, Sanderson quotes an enigmatic
passage from the Nisvdsatattvasamhitd's cosmography that implies some sort of
link between Candesa and Ucchusma. The passage in question is a description of
the bottommost of the seven subterranean paradises that lie between our earth
and the hells below (Guhyasutra 5:4-5) (ff. 54r-55v):
dyasT prathamd bhumifh] purl bhasmafvatl] —
115 As Professor Sanderson has pointed out to me (letter of 8.X.2005, the acala-
HRDAYA quoted by Santideva in his (probably seventh-century) Siksdsamuccaya
also has the element candamahdrosa (p. 144). Professor ISAACSON has suggested
to me that Santideva may here have been drawing on the Trisamayarajatantra, and
has pointed out that we find the same DHARANI in surviving materials related to
that tantra, such as the Trisamayardjasddhana of Kumudakaramati (p. 3).
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Who is Candesa ?
[(dhanam)ja]yasya nagasya tathd ucchusmarudrayoh
ucchusmeti purl khydtd dyasT harmamdlini
candisam pujayantiha nirmdlyapatane gatdh
Sanderson's quotation (2007:198) cautiously excludes the bracketed text (sup-
plied from the twentieth-century apographs of the early manuscript) and he says
that the passage
. . . makes Ucchusmarudra preside in a city of iron that bears his name in the first
of the subterranean paradises known as the Patalas. This, we are told, is the
destiny of souls who have allowed the substances left from Siva's worship to fall
to the ground. Here they worship Candesa (/Candesvara), the ferocious Gana of
Siva to whom such remnants are to be offered in Saiddhantika worship, in order
to remove the danger they pose.
A corrupt version of the same passage occurs in the Sivadharmasangraha (10:6-
7, f. 124v), which reproduces the lower levels of the cosmography of the Guhya-
sutra. 116 A slightly different situation appears to be described there:
dyasT prathamd bhumih purl bhasmavati yatah
dhanahjayasya kdmasya rudrasyocchusmasamjninah 6
ucchusmeti purl khydtd dyasi harmyamdlini
candisam pujayet tasydm nirmdlyapatanam yatah 7
The first level is of iron, in which there is a city Bhasmavati belonging to the
serpent (kdmasya a corruption of nagasya?) Dhananjaya and to the Rudra called
Ucchusma. [There is also] a [different] city, made of iron, garlanded with palaces
and called Ucchusma. There one worships Candisa because of [having allowed in
a previous life?] the falling down of nirmdlya. 111
Now Candesa may have been an inspiration for Acala, or for Ucchusma as he
occurs in Buddhist tantric contexts, or it may be that the various ritual functions
for which Candesa is held responsible were shared among a number of deities
including Acala and Ucchusma, or that some of their ritual functions just happen
to be parallel to some of Candesa's. Whatever the case, a thorough examination
of these interesting questions is beyond the scope of this already too lengthy
article.
116 I am grateful to Anil Kumar ACHARYA, currently producing an edition of the Siva-
dharmasangraha for his doctoral thesis at the University of Pondicherry, both for
pointing out the many borrowings from the Nisvdsatattvasamhitd in the Siva-
dharmasangraha, and for furnishing me with his electronic transcription of the
work.
117 Or perhaps just conceivably, as Professor ElNOO has pointed out to me: 'There,
because [it is where] nirmdlya falls down, one must worship Candisa.'
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Candesa as chastiser of transgressions
Now we have mentioned above that the earliest Siddhantatantras tend not ex-
plicitly to enjoin the worship of Canda at the end of the worship of Siva. But that
does not mean that Candesa was missing from the Saiva Siddhanta in its earli-
est surviving phase. For there is one moment in which Siddhantatantras agree
on prescribing the worship of Canda, and that is at the end of the performance of
an initiation rite. Indeed the earliest part of what appears to be the earliest sur-
viving Saiva tantra (redacted perhaps between 450 and 550 AD 118 ) teaches the
worship of Canda on the following day (5:22cd of the Mulasutra of the Nisvasa-
tattvasamhita, quoted in fn. 73 on p. 366 above). At the end of an initiation cer-
emony, Canda is installed and worshipped and the initiate is instructed in the
post-initiatory rules of the cult (samaya), in the presence of Candesa, whose duty
it is to punish transgressions. Eight post-initiatory rules are alluded to at the end
of the account of initiation in chapter 5 of the Mulasutra of the Nisvasatattva-
samhita, and they are explained in the same work's Nayasutra, in a passage in
which the duties of a group of seven Ganas, including Candesa, are related: 119
[dejhapasah smrta hy ete ganapasani me srnu
labdhdnujno [na] sahkrdme Vidyesas tena badhyate 1:100
mulyah krtva vadej jnanam Sanmukhas tena badhyate
alabdhanujho [v aide jnanam dadati ca adiksite 1:101
siddhim Ganapatir hanyac chidram drstva tu sadhake
parivarttayati yas tantram pasujhanena mohitah 1:102
Nandir badhnati vai sighrafm Candisah sajmaydstasu
yo nindati sivam devan tadbhaktan desikan tatha 1:103
nir[ma]lyabhaksane vapi balidanapasor api
adatte cartavisprstam sastranindam karoti ca 1:104
lihgacchayavilahghi ca candiso bandhate bhrsam
pratijhavratam arudha[h] punas tyaktva sivam vratam 1:105
anyattantravratah grhned Devi tena nibandhati
sivatantram adhitva tu sivafyajnam prakujrvvate 1:106
yajate vaidikair yajhaih sivabhaktams ca nindate
viprams caivanyalihgastham pujayet stunateti ca 1:107
Hathakusmdndarudras tu tarn vai badhnati durmmatim
ganapasani badhnanti diksitan tu tatha drdham 1:108
101c. vadej jnanam ] NW; vade jnanam K • 103b. candisah samayastasu ] W;
— mayastau N; candisa +h+ samayastasu K • 104c. adatte ] conj.; adatte NKW
• 105b. candiso ] NW; candisai K • 105d. sivam ] NW; siva° K • 106a. grhned ]
NW; grhnan K • 106b. nibandhati ] NW; nibadhyati K • 106d. sivayajnam
118 Thus Goodall and Isaacson 2007.
119 Nj is the ninth-century Nepalese manuscript; K and W are the apographs held in
Kathmandu and in the Wellcome Institute in London respectively. Text enclosed in
square brackets is not legible in N, but has been supplied from the apographs.
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Who is Candesa ?
praku" ] K; si „ — N, ; sivayajna " W 107d. "tunateti ] NW; "tuvateti K 108b. tarn vai
badhnati durmmatim ] conj.; ta vai badhnati durmmatim N; tavaiva pratidurmatih K;
tavaiva pratidurmmatim W
These [above] are remembered as the bonds of the body. Hear now from me the
bonds inflicted by the Ganas. If, having obtained permission to do so, a person
does not commit yogic suicide (na sahkrame), 120 Vidyesa punishes him for that
(tena). 121 If someone sets a price and teaches scripture, Sanmukha punishes him
for that. If someone teaches scripture without having first obtained permission or
(ca) transmits it to a non-initiate, Ganapati searches for some flaw in the sddhaka
and destroys his power. Nandi quickly punishes one who, deluded by the systems
of thought devised by bound souls, distorts the tantric teaching. In the case of
[transgression of] the eight post-initiatory rules of conduct, [it is] Candisa [who
punishes]. 122 If one reviles the Lord Siva (i), a devotee of His (ii) or a guru (hi), or
in the case of eating the nirmalya (iv), or of giving it as bali to a bound soul [or
perhaps to a beast?] 123 (v), or if one takes what has been touched by a menstru-
ating woman (vi), 124 or reviles scripture (vii), or steps on the shadow of a lihga
(viii), Candisa vigorously punishes. If someone undertakes a religious observance
beginning with(?) a vow and then abandons that pure observance and takes up
an observance taught in another work, Devi punishes for that. If someone studies
the Sivatantra, performs Siva-yajna [and] sacrifices with Vedic rites and reviles
devotees of Siva and venerates and praises 125 Brahmins with other religious af-
filiations, Hathakusmanda-rudra punishes that wrong-thinking person. In this
way the bonds inflicted by the Ganas firmly bind the initiate.
This passage is important for a number of reasons. The Nisvasa is now thought
of as Saiddhantika, but it apparently predates a split into the Saiva Siddhanta
120 Third person optatives often drop their final consonant in this text.
121 badhyate, bandhati and badhnati appear to be used synonymously here.
122 Alternatively, we could accept the pre-correction reading of K and understand: 'In
the case of the eight post-initiatory rules of Candisa — . . . '.
123 Or as Professor Einoo has suggested to me, this could conceivably be construed to
mean: 'or [in the case of eating] a sacrificed animal given as bali'.
124 This interepretation assumes that artavi- is intended as a vrddhi derivative from
rtu and so means 'a woman in her season'. The conjecture and interpretation
are based upon the Siddhantasdrapaddhati of Bhoja, who gives an overlapping
list of eight post-initiatory rules, the last of which being that one should not eat
food touched by a menstruating woman (SANDERSON *2005): . . . astau samaydn
srdvayet. (i-iv) mahesvaratacchdstragurusddhakddinindd na karya. (v) lihga-
cchdydm na lahghayet, (vi) nirmalyam ca. (vii) na tad asniydt. (viii) rajas-
valdsprstdnnam na bhaksayet. Assuming that the bhakta of our text corresponds
to the category sddhakddi in Bhoja's, the list of eight rules is the same, though pre-
sented differently, except for one item: while Bhoja's list forbids stepping on the
nirmalya, the Nisvasa forbids giving the nirmalya to non-initiates or perhaps to
beasts.
125 stunateti is of course irregular, but probably authorial rather than transmissional.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
and into other streams of tantric Saivism, for it contains no allusion to such
a differentiation and yet devotes considerable space (much of its introductory
book, which is called the Nisvasamukha) to a detailed explanation of the religious
context that surrounds it. 126 We may note, furthermore, that the list of Ganas
among whom Candesa is included is archaic. No circuit of eight Ganas such as
we discussed above (in connection with the so-called "Siva-Kamadeva" figures in
Nepal) features in the Nisvasatattvasamhita's accounts of Siva-worship. Vidyesa
and Hathakusmanda do not figure as Ganas elsewhere, and the Nisvasa omits
three figures who occur in the later standard list, namely Mahakala, Bhrrigin
and the bull (vrsabha). 127 The passage links Candesa's function as the chas-
tiser of eight transgressions with his function as the receiver of nirmdly a, since
eating the nirmdlya is one of those transgressions. And in doing so it confirms
that Candesa was present in the earliest phase of tantric Saivism that is acces-
sible to us, before the standardisation of a list of eight ganas associated with the
eight directions. 128 He continues to be associated with the punishing of those
who transgress post-initiatory rules, 129 but we find occasional evidence that he
is thought of as punishing other sorts of crime. 130
126 GOUDRIAAN treats it as though it were not a Saiddhantika work, even though it
presents the earliest surviving version of the list of twenty-eight scriptures that
came to be regarded as the twenty-eight primary Siddhantatantras (GOUDRIAAN
and Gupta 1981:33-6). His discussion of the work concludes with these remarks
(1981:36):
The Nihsvasatattvasamhita evidently provides a link between the ordinary type
of a "Dvaita" Saiva Agama and the esoteric Tantras. The esoteric and unorthodox
character of much of its contents renders it plausible that the text for this reason
could not be accepted by the early Saiva Siddhanta.
For a presentation of the detailed account the Nisvasatattvasamhita gives of the
Atimarga, see Sanderson 2006b.
127 In a later part of the tantra (Guhyasutra 16:52) we find another list of ganas, again
explicitly seven of them and not eight, which includes these three (assuming that
Kapali stands for Mahakala) but omits Candesa: devi skandan ca vighnesam nandi
kapalim eva ca/ vrsabham caiva bhrhgin ca saptaite tu prakirtitah .
128 p or an announcement of a preparation of an edition of this text, as well as mention
of a few further indicators of its archaic character, Goodall and Isaacson 2007.
We have there suggested that its earliest part, the Mulasutra, might have been
composed between 450 and 550 ad.
129 See, e.g., TAK s.v. candajhabhahga .
130 A Khmer inscription may be adduced: K. 195, lines 19-24 {Inscriptions du Cam-
bodge VI, pp. 247-250), dated to 963 saka (=1041 AD). Ccedes translates: 'Si le
venerable et les gens qui seront chefs a l'avenir ne se conforment pas a l'ordre gra-
cieux du roi, ils seront condamnes aux peines les plus severes, soumis aux sept
chatiments royaux, jusqu'au sejour de Candisvara, avec leurs families durant mille
naissances.'
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Who is Candesa ?
Candesa outside Tamil Nadu
Now if a nirmalya-receiving Candesa is a pan-Indian figure prominent in
the Saiva Siddhanta from its earliest beginnings, and from before the Saiva
Siddhanta had begun to distinguish itself from other streams of tantric Saivism,
then why do we not find many more representations of him from other parts
of the Indian sub-continent? Aside from the Nepalese candidates, we have of
course referred to images from Andhra Pradesh, and others in Karnataka may
be adduced.
Plate 28. Candesa inside the ardhamandapa in the disused Ramalingesvara
temple at Narasamangalam, Chamrajnagar Taluk, Mysore Dt. The date of the
temple seems to be a matter of uncertain guesswork. Architecturally, it seems to
echo the early C5la-period Alanturai (or Brahmapurisvara) temple at Pullaman-
gai (PuJ}amarikai, Pashupatikoyil, Papanasam Taluk, Tanjore Dt.) by alternating
broad aedicules with narrow ones dropped to a much lower level in a way that
suggests depth (for Pullamangai, see Schmid 2007, Fig. 10). Photo: IFP/EFEO.
But these are arguably all within the furthest reach of the influence of the Tamil-
speaking South, which has until now been widely considered to be the source of
Candesa worship. Relatively late South Indian influence cannot, some would
say, be firmly excluded even in the case of the Nepalese images, because of the
periodic importation of South Indian priests to officiate in the Pasupati temple.
The art-historian Dhaky, though he too believed Candesa to be an essentially
Southern figure, has provided the elements of an answer to this problem. His
article on the subject (1970:104) announced the discovery of 'two medieval works
on architecture. . . of the Maru-Gurjara or Lata tradition' that prescribe the con-
struction of shrines to Candesa to the North-East of the lihga. 131 As Dhaky
suggests (1970:103-4):
The loss of Saivdgamas of the Northern tradition, the ascendancy of Vaisnavism
at the expense of Saivism in the late medieval period in North, and the failure
so far on our part to recognise — even suspect — Candesa figures among the vast
assemblages of a variety of iconic figures of the Saivaite affiliation scattered all
over Northern India in the many regional styles are factors responsible for the
almost total blackout on Canda in North India.
But it is evident that Ccedes is confusing dyatana with ydtana ('torment').
The Khmer reads: pddamula nu anak ta khloh ni pradvann dau vnek ni pi
warn thve rohh vrah karund neh nirnaya toy uttamasdha doh [doubtful reading]
rdjabhayasaptaka Ivoh ta candisvaraydtand nu santdna phoh sahasra kamnet.
131 He mentions a third treatise, the Laksanasamuccaya of Vairocam, but his quotation
of it (1970:109) reveals that it is an extremely corrupt text of Vairocana's Pratisthd-
laksanasdrasamuccaya 17:13-18, to which we have referred above.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
A number of the sculptures that we identify as Candesa are identified by others
as other figures — the four-faced image in Chidambaram is seen as Brahma, the
club-wielding figure at Arittappatti is seen as Lakulisa, the standing ithyphallic
images in Kathmandu are Kamadeva or Siva-Kamadeva — and this illustrates, if
even only some of these proposed identifications are correct, that regional and
temporal iconographic variations can be utterly bewildering. Now in DHAKY's
two works, the Vastusastra and the Vdstuvidyd, both attributed to Visvakarman
and which he dates, respectively, to the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries
(1970:104), we find an entirely different iconographic type described. Both texts
envisage a Candesa concealed from view by his own shrine, placed with upturned
face beneath the pranala to drink the lustral waters that pour from the lifiga. It
is rather less surprising, then, that no Candesas have hitherto been discovered
in Western India: not only have large numbers of early temples been destroyed,
but the type of image chosen to represent him must have been utterly different
from what South Indian types would lead us to expect.
Plate 29. Candesa underneath the pranala in the Martandesvara temple at
Marttandesvaram, Kalkulam Taluk, Kanyakumari Dt. This is not an ancient
image, but it seemed worth including since it demonstrates the existence of a
tradition that may echo the one Dhaky (1970) has uncovered: the figure does not
have his face upturned, but he is partly concealed in the tank and has been placed
directly underneath the outflow from the pranala. Photo: IFP/EFEO.
Dhaky quotes the relevant passages of both the works he discusses, but in an
extremely corrupt form. I quote here just a few lines (missing out the description
of the aedicule in which Canda is to be housed) of the passage from the Vdstu-
vidyd with normalised orthography and a few suggested corrections:
tatha vai karayet 132 prajhah jagatyam madhyasamsthitam
carusimhasanaslnam nilameghanjanaprabham
urdhvavaktram sutejadhyam pibantam snapanam sada
tahkapanim mahacandam 133 pranaladhovyavasthitam
Tdrsam 1M karayec candam sarvakdmaphalapradam
svayambhubanalihge 135 ca sthandile mandate 'pi va
advaitamantrasamyukte cale cando 136 na vidyate
The wise man should cause him to be made thus, placed in the middle of the ja-
gati, seated on a lovely lion- throne, the colour of a dark cloud or of collyrium, with
132 karayet ] em.; karyyet Dhaky
133 tankapanim mahacandam ] conj.; tamkapani mahacanda Dhaky
134 Idrsam ] em.; idasam Dhaky
136 svayambhubanalihge ] conj.; svayambhu banalirige Dhaky
136 "samyukte cale cando ] conj.; samyuktam cale cande Dhaky
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Who is Candesa ?
upturned face, full of fierce vigour, at all times drinking the ablution waters [that
have been poured over the lihga], with an axe in hand, extremely terrible, situ-
ated beneath the water-spout. This is how one should cause Canda, who grants all
desires and fruits, to be made. In the case of [worship of Siva in] a spontaneously
arisen lihga, or banalihga, or a prepared ritual ground, 137 or a mandala or [in a
lihga] in which the mantra of a non-dual [deity, such as Bhairava or Tumburu,]
has been installed, Canda is absent.
Dhaky speculates about waves of South Indian influence that might account
for the spread of the South Indian figure of Canda to the North, but, since we
can now show that Canda was in fact already a pan-Indian figure some cen-
turies before this, another explanation suggests itself: perhaps, after all, various
regions independently came up with very different visualisations of Candesa,
some of them emphasising his character as a fierce chastiser of transgressions
(the seated, axe-wielding figures of the South), others his role as the recipient of
nirmdlya (an open-mouthed figure drinking the lustral waters of a pranala 138 ),
and others again his nature as a fierce hypostasis of Siva (the standing, four-
armed ithyphallic figures of Nepal).
Plate 30. Two-armed Candesvara as depicted in the volume of drawings accom-
panying the Pratisthalaksanasarasamuccaya . The text's four-armed prescription
is not illustrated in that volume and this is instead a realisation of him as he
appears among other Ganesvaras in 6:183:
svetas tryakso dvibahus cajatl tahkaksamalikah
pracando dandadharl ca karyas candesvaro mahan.
'Candesvara should be made white, three-eyed, two-armed, with matted locks and
bearing an axe/chisel/dagger (tahka) and a rosary; and [alternatively! (ca) [he may
be made] big, fierce, wielding a club/stick.' The drawing (which interprets tahka to
mean chisel or dagger) has no club or stick, as though the second half of the verse
had been considered as giving an alternative. The yogapattasana , represented by
a band on the ground, is probably the result of confusion. 139
The 'muddle', if such a word can be used for the resulting profusion of forms, is
certainly in part produced by the peculiarities of the dialogue between literature
(whether prescriptive or narrative) and visual images. A Sanskrit prescriptive
text-passage may travel faster and further than an image, but even an appar-
137 For the sthandila and its preparation, see ElNOO 2005:33-41.
138 No such figure has come to light, but it seems reasonable to assume that the works
Dhaky quotes from described a real practice.
139 BUHNEMANN (2003:42, fn. 116) remarks: '[according to PLSS 6.181b, the deity is
seated with (and not on) the yogapatta'. No doubt she is correct, but 6:181 in fact
describes Yogesvara, another deity.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ently precise and detailed description may retain important ambiguities that
may in turn lead to bewildering sculptural representations. Many descriptions
use the term tanka to describe Canda's most distinctive implement and, since
this term may refer to an axe or to a chisel and perhaps also to other instru-
ments, we find this apparently reflected in axes in the South, certainly reflected
in a chisel in the illustration of the Pratisthalaksanasdrasamuccaya (PLATE 30),
and perhaps reflected in a chisel in some four-armed Nepalese figures. I add
the qualifications 'apparently', 'certainly' and 'perhaps' advisedly, for, as any one
who has ever tried to match Sanskrit prescriptive texts and images knows, the
relations are far from simple.
Occasional perfect matches in the case of significant figures of worship
are indeed to be found in various parts of the sub-continent, notably from the
eleventh century onwards — remaining in the Saiddhantika milieu, we may
point to the four-armed Candesvara of Plates 12-13 in the South, or to the
ten-armed Sadasivas of the Bengal region shown and discussed in Goodall
et al. 2005:62-3, 138-45 and FIGS. 44-5 — and they grow yet more common,
at least in South India, from the twelfth century. This is in part, I believe,
because we have a large body of 'South Indian Temple scriptures', to which
we have referred at the beginning of this article, which catalogued what they
found in many a Cola-period temple and presented description as prescription
(cf., again, the remarks of SANDERSON 2004:444-5). A concrete example may
make this clear: a seated figure of Siva known as Daksinamurti is the principal
sculpture on the South side of the outside of the garbhagrha of a vast number
of South Indian temples, beginning with the Kailasanatha. 140 Some variation
is found in the implements he holds and in what is arrayed around him, but in
a typical sculpture we may expect to see him teaching beneath a banyan tree,
surrounded by sage-like disciples, and often with animals beneath his seat.
Numerous textual 'prescriptions' can be found (see, e.g., Rao 1914, Vol. II, part
II, Appendix B, pp. 137-46), but not one is to be found in an unambiguously pre-
twelfth-century work. Moreover, the various textual sources that we know to be
pre-twelfth-century — from identifiable quotations in twelfth-century literature,
from early manuscripts, from the existence of commentaries — are silent about
this figure. So what work prescribed the first representations of 'Daksinamurti'
in the early eighth century? If we take 'prescribe' in a literal sense, then perhaps
140 This article is not the place to treat in full the problematic case of Daksinamurti,
which is much discussed in secondary literature (e.g. Barker 2001 and 2004) and
which will be examined in a forthcoming book about Pallava-period iconography by
Valerie GlLLET: La creation d'une iconographie sivaite narrative : incarnations du
dieu dans les temples pallava construits.
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Who is Candesa ?
none did.
Plate 31. 'Daksinamurti' on the South face of the Attahasesvara temple in
Tiruttani, Tiruttani Taluk, Tiruvalluvar Dt. The back hands hold rosary and
flaming torch; in the front hands we see a teaching gesture (index and thumb
joined in a ring, with the other fingers extended and the palm turned to the
viewer) and a palm-leaf manuscript. A banyan tree rises up behind the figure.
Beneath his seat are a snake, two deer and a rat. The left ear only has a pattra-
kundala; above it is the trumpet of a dhattura flower. Daksinamurti more usually
rests his left ankle on his right knee.
But once a descriptive literature had begun to grow that couched its descriptions
in prescriptive terms, this may in turn have led to an increased readiness to
turn to textual descriptions as the starting-points for images, thus expanding
the repertoire of sculpted forms to include images that may earlier have existed
only in dhyana.
What I am suggesting is that some iconographies appear to have begun in
artists' or sculptors' minds before becoming the subject of textual prescriptions,
while others may have started life as visualisations {dhyana) prescribed as part
of private worship. To restate that in concrete terms, the iconography of such
figures as Daksinamurti may have evolved amongst artists who were attempt-
ing to give expression to a welter of notions (about Siva and about divinities who
face South, for instance), drawn directly or indirectly from other images, from re-
ligious practice, from narrative literature or from other sources unknown. This
iconography then eventually passed into prescriptive literature. Conversely, the
iconography of a four-faced, four-armed Candesvara with trident, axe, rosary and
water-pot may instead have begun as a prescribed visualisation {dhyana) to be
used in the course of Saiddhantika worship and then passed into the sculptural
repertoire. In Nepal, it did so as a standing, ithyphallic figure, but in South India,
where a tradition of showing Candesa as seated in a certain fashion had already
evolved, probably amongst sculptors and artisans, the iconography of the visual-
isation was blended with existing sculptural conventions for the representation
of Candesa.
Plate 32. Candesa to the North-East of the linga in the Gomuktisvara temple
in Tiruvavaduthurai Adheenam (Tiruvavatuturai), Mayavaram Taluk, Nagapat-
tinam District. Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Plate 33. Detail of Candesa in his shrine at the Gomuktisvara temple in Tiru-
vavaduthurai Adheenam (Tiruvavatuturai), Mayavaram Taluk, Nagapattinam
District. Notice the flower, perhaps a reference to Siva's nirmalya, used to make
an unusual earring. N. RAMASWAMY drew my attention to this detail. Photo:
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Returning then to the early two-armed, seated Candesas of South India, they
may appear to reflect prescriptions for two-armed figures, but they may instead
have been inspired from an unmappable tangle of factors: half- remembered snip-
pets of legend, the knowledge of his association with the axe, associations that
arise from the sound of his name, the appearance of ascetics with matted locks, a
knowledge of his association with nirmalya, imitation and modification of other
South-facing images, and so forth. Some of these factors appear sporadically
in the corpus: his association with nirmalya, for instance, appears to be ex-
pressed by his wearing a flatfish open-petalled flower prominently on his head
which can be seen both in early images (Plates 2[?], 5, 6, 15, 38, 39) and in
later ones (27), and may in one place be expressed by an unusual flower ear-
ring (Plates 32-3 and cf. Plate 1). Elements that may be intended to recall
Candesa's identity with Siva are also sporadic, such as the pattrakundala in the
left ear (PLATES 19, 23, 27, 32-3), the dhattura flower (PLATE 27) and the
skull (Plates 19, 21). In other details, an early variety is gradually standard-
ised. We may note, for instance, that there is some variation in the posture of the
legs (Plates 2, 4, 6, 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 28) before the familiar posture (with
one leg resting on the platform on which he sits and the other dangling below it)
is adopted as standard (Plates 2, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19, 27, 32). The club and the
axe are perhaps equally common among the earliest sculptures, but it is the axe
that wins through.
Canda as watchman ?
We return now to discuss a feature of many of the earliest sculptural represen-
tations that we have not until now commented upon. In rock-cut shrines that
may all be of the eighth and ninth centuries, Candesa often appears outside the
entrance of a lihga shrine, paired with Vinayaka.
Plate 34. A Trisulapurusa as doorkeeper, together with Candesa. Both are
stationed to the approacher's right of the entrance to the East-facing cave No.
3 (reading from North to East) at Bhairavakona (commonly referred to in sec-
ondary literature as Bhairavakonda), Kanigiri Taluk, Nellore District, Andhra
Pradesh. In East-facing Pallava or Pandya caves, we would expect the watchman
on the approacher's left to be the Trisulapurusa and the one on the right to be
the Parasupurusa, but their positions are thus reversed in all the eight principal
cave-shrines at this site. Candesa too is positioned like this in all the principal
cave-shrines, in such a way that he is located to the North-East of the lihga and
facing a sculpture of Gajanana on the other flank. Note the channel cut into the
rock that leads away whatever has been poured over the lihga through the wall
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Who is Candesa ?
of the shrine, underneath the watchman and then beneath the feet of Candesa.
Each of the cave-shrines has such a channel, strongly suggesting that, just as at
Malaiyadipatti (for which see GOODALL et al. 2005:58-9), Candesa is conceived
of here as the nirmdlyadhdrin and not simply as a guardian (as was mooted in
Goodall et al. 2005:186, fn. 128).
We find such representations as far North as Bhairavakona, in Andhra Pradesh
(e.g. Plate 34), where Candesa and Vinayaka face each other, 141 as well as in
the South, in the Pandya country, for instance at Arittappatti and at Devarmalai
(Plate 5), where Candesa and Vinayaka face outwards towards the approaching
worshipper.
Plate 35. Candesa to the right of the entrance to an unfinished(?) rock-cut
cave at Kunnandarkoyil (Kunrantarkovil), Pudukkottai Taluk, Pudukkottai Dt.
In this case there is no answering figure of Vinayaka. Photo: IFP/EFEO.
In these cases Candesa is on the right-hand side of the caves from the perspec-
tive of an approaching worshipper. One way of looking at such images might
be to consider them as watchmen guarding the shrine. And there are a few
instances of another sort of figure that might arguably show Candesa in watch-
man guise. Together, these two types of figure might add another function, that
of doorkeeper, to Candesa's job-description.
Before we consider these figures, let us first recall that one of the most sta-
ble distinctive features in the early iconography of the seated Candesas is his
mop of matted hair (jatabhara); second, we may remind ourselves that among
the earliest representations are those of Siva being venerated by a Candesa
who submissively inclines his head and puts his hands together in a respect-
ful anjali (Plate 25); third we may recall that Pallava-period watchmen, as has
been convincingly demonstrated by LOCKWOOD et al. 2001:7ff, are personified
weapons of the deity of the shrine they guard. At Pallava sites Siva's watchmen
are therefore commonly a personified trident, or Trisulapurusa (usually to the
approaching worshipper's left), and a personified axe, or Parasupurusa. Such
personified weapons as watchmen are in fact widespread across South India, for
they are to be found at Calukya monuments in and around Aihole, though this
seems not to have been observed to date, and also to the South of the Pallava
realm. 142 The various well-known Pallava watchmen that represent the axe do
141 Rock-cut images of Candesvara are seen outside six of the Saiva caves at
Bhairavakona (in Kanigiri Taluk, Nellur District, Andhra Pradesh). See Pattabi-
ramin 1971, Plates XXXVII, XLII, XLV, L, LVI, LVIII.
142 Their presence in rock-cut shrines in the Pandya country was pointed out to me by
Emmanuel FRANCIS and Charlotte Schmid and we plan to produce together a more
detailed demonstration of the presence of ayudhapurusas as watchmen throughout
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
not have Candesa's disctinctive coiffure, but there are a couple of Parasupurusas
from further South that are uncannily like him: firstly, they share his distinctive
jatabhara and heavy jewellery; secondly, they seem submissively devotional (and
therefore relatively unmartial) compared with other watchmen; and thirdly, al-
though they carry no weapon at all, they have the blade of an axe incorporated
into their headdresses.
Plate 36. Parasupurusa to the viewer's right of the approach to the East-facing
lihga shrine at Kunnantarkoyil (Kunrantarkovil), Pudukkottai Taluk, Pudukkot-
tai Dt. Out of the top of this watchman's heavy jatabhara protrudes the top por-
tion of the haft of an axe, with part of its blade pointing out towards the viewer.
He wears heavy jewellery, not just about the neck and chest, but also earrings,
bracelets and upper-arm-bands. His head is slightly inclined, in the manner of
Candesa as the archetypal devotee, towards the door of the shrine he 'guards'. If
one discounts his position beside the door, his crossed arms and watchful look are
all there is to suggest his function as a dvarapalaka.
Plate 37. Parasupurusa to the viewer's right of the Satyagirisvara at the
East-facing eighth-century(?) rock-cut shrine at Tirumayam (Tirumeyyam), Tiru-
mayam Taluk, Pudukkottai Dt. For the left-hand watchman, a Trisulapurusa,
see Goodall et al. 2005:55-6 and Fig. 24. Once again, the upper part of an
axe, its blade pointing out towards the viewer, protrudes from a heavy jatabhara.
Once again, the figure wears heavy jewellery about the neck and chesk, on the
ears and on the lower and upper arms. This time a stomach-band (udarabandha)
is also visible. The left-hand, hidden behind the cloth, is on the upper left thigh;
the figure's right hand gestures to the shrine's opening and perhaps also registers
astonishment. A fold of cloth can be seen hanging below the figure's right knee.
(A modern image of Skanda as Dandapani stands in front.)
Some sort of mixture of ideas may have produced such a watchman figure and it
seems not inconceivable that these watchmen were intended both as representa-
tions of Candesa and at the same time as anthropomorphised representations of
Siva's axe.
But, setting apart the strange watchmen of the Pandya country that we have
just discussed, there is perhaps no need to suppose that other figures of Candesa
placed outside lihga shrines should really be watchmen. Their being seated, first
of all, might argue against this (though admittedly their typical seated posture
could be intended to express watchful vigilance, for it is the posture most com-
monly adopted by the guardian deities of village boundaries all over the Tamil-
speaking South, such as Maturaiviran, Kattavaraiyan, Periyannan, Laracami,
South India.
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Who is Candesa ?
Municuvaran, Ayyanar, etc.). Furthermore, in the case of one of the best known,
the one at Arittappatti, there is a separate inner pair of more conventional club-
wielding dvdrapdlakas standing on either side of the entrance. As for their posi-
tion outside the shrine, perhaps we should rather say that Ganesa is the figure to
be venerated as one enters and Candesa, in view of his connection with nirmdlya,
is the figure whom one venerates as one departs. (Admittedly, there are, in the
developed Siddhanta, contexts in which Candesa is treated as a watchman, 143
but these are when all the eight Ganesvaras are so treated and are probably not
relevant.) In a small shrine, when the essential figures are reduced to just the
linga and Ganesa with Candesa, then the latter pair can appear to be watch-
men; but in a larger context, such as in the Kailasanatha, these figures marking
entrance and exit (PLATE 22) do not appear in such a light. The positioning
of Ganesa and Candesa guarding entrance and exit may not last much beyond
the period of rock-cut shrines. In constructed temples in South India they are
probably not common, for, aside from in the Kailasanatha, I am aware of only
one ruined shrine where they appear, namely at Satyamangalam, in which they
were probably so placed. Nothing remains there except what appears to be a
late Pallava plinth, a couple of lifigas, and two stone bas-relief panels showing
Ganesa and Candesa (Plate 38).
Plate 38. Candesvara on a stone panel beside the plinth of the ruined Saiva
temple at Satyamangalam, Senji Taluk, Villuppuram Dt. The only other figura-
tive sculpture visible in 2003, apart from the elephant heads carved at the corners
on the base of the temple (which suggest a date in the late Pallava period), was a
matching panel showing Vinayaka. The character of the stone makes it difficult
to be sure, but there may be a flower in front of the conical point at the top of his
jatdbhdra.
Other evidence, however, for Vinayaka and Candesa being installed together
with a linga is to be found at a later date in Cambodia. The following inscrip-
tion from Prah Phnom, K. 593, appears to record the installation of Candesvara,
Vinayaka, a linga and a set of planets in 852 saka (930 AD) (Inscriptions du
Cambodge III, pp. 119-20). 144
bhaktim sthirikartum avighnakdrini dvipancamurtau sivasomanama
candisvaram vighnapatin ca lingam grahais saha sthdpitavdn subhaktyd
143 One such context is the dvarapalapuja before diksa in the Kriyakramadyotika
(p. 151); another is in SP4 11.106. Cf. also Matahgaparamesvara, kriydpdda 7:6-
8.
144 Ccedes reads, conjectures and interprets the first verse somewhat differently. My
alterations to the text are based upon consultation, with Professor Gerdi Ger-
schheimer, of the estampage n. 479 of the EFEO in Paris.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
bhadram vo 'stu svakam puny am bhuyad asmin valadhipah
raksantv idam muda ye hi ^candinamm rddhaye^ sada
bhaktim ] bhakti" CCEDES • "karini dvipancamurtau ] conj.; "kari dvipancamurttau
conj. CCEDES; "karini dvipancamurtto • candisvaram ] conj.; candisvara" CCEDES
(unmetrical)
In order to make devotion firm to the one who removes obstacles, a man named
Sivasoma installed, with true devotion, a Candisvara, a Vighnapati, a lihga, to-
gether with the planets, in [the year marked by 8] forms [of Siva], 5 and 2.
May good come to you! May the merit in this [pious act] belong to its author! May
those in power (balddhipah) at all times joyfully protect this [foundation] for the
success fcandinamml; .
Now CCEDES, not expecting a reference to Candesa, has not unreasonably sup-
posed that candisvara should be interpreted as 'Candi and Isvara' (retroflex
stops and the retroflex nasal are quite commonly made dental in the Cambodian
corpus), but the reading he requires for this interpretation (a reading without
anusvara), is unmetrical. 145 Furthermore, SANDERSON (2004:437-8, fn. 317)
has pointed out that this inscription is not the only one in the Khmer corpus that
appears to refer to Candesvara. The second case he points to is verse 26 of Face
B of K. 278, an inscription of the first half of the 11th century edited by BARTH
(1885:97-117). Sanderson comments (ibid.)
I am unaware of any surviving Khmer image of this deity. However, the fact that
he is in the company of Ganesa, Nandin and Mahakala make it unlikely that it is
not Candesvara who is intended. For these are all deities of the same class, being
among the eight leaders of Siva's attendant demigods (ganesvardh, pramatha-
nayakdh) that are worshipped in the systems of some of the Saiva Tantras as the
deity-circuit outside the Vidyesvaras, between the latter and the Lokapalas.
SANDERSON did not go on to quote verse 28 of the same inscription (BARTH
1885:108):
vidhivad adhikakdnte 'tisthipat padmapithe sivasubhamanilihgam candivighnesvarau
ca
ya upacaranapdtram yad dhaldnady umendre punar adita sa esa srlksitlndropakalpah
"tisthipat padmapithe ] em. BARTH; dhisthipat padmapithe • °mani° ] em. BARTH
• candi" ] em. BARTH; candi"
BARTH translates (1885:117):
145 CCEDES translation of the first verse is as follows (1951:120):
Pour affermir la devotion, le nomme Civasoma, ecartant les obstacles, dans
(l'annee marquee par les) (8) formes (de Civa) - cinq - deux, a pieusement erige
Candi (Uma), Icvara (Civa), Vighnapati (Ganeca), un liriga, avec les images des
planetes.
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Who is Candesa ?
Conformement aux preceptes, il a erige sur un socle splendide (en forme) de lotus
un linga de Qiva brillant de joyaux (et deux images de) Candi et de Vighnecvara,
et il a donne au seigneur d'Uma une coupe de service qui (contient un vrai) fleuve
de hala, lui cri-Kstmdropakalpa.
Here, although we do not have other Ganesvaras present (other than
Vighnesvara), it seems to me likely that Candesvara is again referred to.
Two factors, in this case, suggest South Indian influence: the pairing of these
two figures beside the linga is known to us from the Indian subcontinent only in
the South, and the form Candi recalls the most frequently used Tamil form of
the name, Canti (pronounced Candi).
SANDERSON refers to one other Cambodian occurrence which is of some im-
portance to us because it belongs to the early seventh century. Although no
date is recorded, it names the ruling king, whom CCEDES identifies (1951:143) as
Isanavarman I (616-c. 635 AD). This pre-Angkorean inscription, K. 22, records
the installation of an image of Harihara in verse 4, and its fifth verse reads as
follows (CCEDES 1951:144):
visnucandesvaresanalingam tena pratisthitam
ekabhoganivaddhdstu tatpujety asya niscayah
He [scil. Isanadatta] installed a Visnu, a Candesvara and a Sivalinga. 146 This was
his decision: 'Let their worship be connected by enjoyment of the same offerings'.
Now if this is indeed a reference to 'our' Candesa, it is significant because it be-
longs to a period for which there is no evidence that any form of Tantric Saivism
had reached Cambodia (Sanderson 2004:435-44). It would therefore be not
simply a very early Candesa, but also a non-Saiddhantika one.
Candesa and the North East
A final speculative observation about the early units consisting of linga,
Vinayaka and Candesa: is it conceivable that these may be the origin of
Candesa's association with the North East? If, as is often the case, the linga
shrine faces East, then Candesa, being placed on the right (from the perspective
of the approaching worshipper), is inevitably to the North-East of the linga. No
association with any particular direction is evident from the earliest Siddhanta-
146 This is Sanderson's proposed translation of the compound (2004:438, fn. 317). He
does not enter into the details of the ruminations of Barth and Ccedes (recorded
in Ccedes 1951:145-6, fn. 5), but briefly comments that it "most probably means 'a
Visnu, a Candesvara and a Sivalinga' (cf. K. 834, v. 84 lihgam aisdnam), as thought
by Ccedes (IC III, 145)." This might seem to imply that Ccedes understood this
to be a reference to the nirmdlya-receiving Canda, but Ccedes makes clear that he
analyses 'Lord of Canda'.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
tantras, namely the Nisvasatattvasamhita, the Svdyambhuvasutrasangraha,
the 200-verse and 350-verse recensions of the Kdlottara (which appear not to
mention Candesa at all), in the chapters surviving from the Rauravasutra-
safigraha, or in the surviving fragments of the Pauskara-Pdramesvaratantra.
Of course there are other possibilities that suggest themselves. It may,
for instance, be Candesvara's position in the North East in the circuit of the
Ganesvaras that has led to his being placed in the North East. But this would
only push the question to another level: why should he have been placed in the
North-East in that circuit? Furthermore, the first attestations of the circuit of
Ganesvaras in literature may not predate the first appearances of Candesa in
the North East. The circuit is absent in the early sources mentioned just above,
and the earliest sources in which it appears are perhaps the Kirana 20:34ff (al-
most the entire passage has dropped out from the edition, but is preserved in the
tenth-century Nepalese manuscript), in the 150-verse recension of the Kdlottara
(verse 128, f. 6r) and in the Sarvajndnottara 5:34-5. 147 The dates of these works
are of course not known to me, but I think of them as belonging chronologically
in the middle amongst surviving pre-tenth -century Siddhantatantras. 148
147 Sarvajndnottara 5:34-5:
ganesvarams caturthe tu kauberyasaditah kramat
devim caiva tu candisam mahdkdlam ca nandinam 5:34
ganddhyaksam ca bhrmgim ca vrsabham skandam eva ca
dhyayen nityam anudvignah padmardgasamaprabhdn 5:35
• 34ab ganesvarams caturthe tu kauberyasaditah ] conj.; ganesvaran caturthe tu kauce
samaditah N, ; ganesvarams caturthe tu kauberyasadisah T334 • 34c devim caiva
tu candisam ] em.; devi caiva tu candisam N,; divam caiva tu candesam T334
• 35b bhrmgim ca ] N, ; bhrrigisam T334 • 35c dhyayen nityam anudvignah ]
em.; dhyayen nityam anudvigna N,; dhyayet sannidhyam anudvigna T334 (unmetrical)
• "samaprabhan ] con/.; "samaprabham N,; samaprabhat T334
In the fourth [circuit] one should calmly visualise the Ganesvaras as ruby-
coloured, beginning from the North in due order: the Goddess, Candisa, Maha-
kala, Nandin, Ganadhyaksa [viz. Gajanana], Bhrrigi, the bull and Skanda.
1 18
A sketch of my notions of the relative chronology of the pre-tenth-century
Saiddhantika canon may be useful here. (Demonstrating with evidence why I think
this rough relative chronology likely must be postponed to another publication.) The
very oldest Siddhantatantras, I now suspect, are those in which there is no mention
of souls' impurity (mala). In this group we may number the Nisvasatattvasamhita,
the 200-verse and 350-verse recensions of the Kdlottara, and possibly the Raurava-
sutrasamhitd (see Goodall, Kataoka, Acharya and Yokochi 2008:315); next
should be placed the Svdyambhuvasutrasangraha, in which mala features, and
which was certainly known to Sadyojyotih in the late seventh century; then fol-
low the 'middle-period' pre-tenth-century scriptures such as the Kirana and Sarva-
jndnottara, which Sadyojyotih may not have known; after these, I suspect, follow
the more disquisitional or sastric works, those that attempt to a greater extent to
engage with non-Saiva philosophical traditions, namely the Matahgapdramesvara,
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Who is Candesa ?
Others have suggested or implied (see L'Hernault 2002:30) that it is
Candesa's being identified with Siva (whose direction is the North East) that
leads to his association with this direction, or that it is the fact that the North
East is the 'end of the circumambulatory circuit' and so the most convenient
place for the devotee 'to testify that he does not carry away the possessions of
the god' (ibid.), or the fact that placing him in the North East puts him near to
the spout (gomukha) carrying away to the North whatever libations are poured
over the lihga (ibid.). We cannot rule out the first and last of these suggestions
voiced by L'Hernault, but we probably can exclude the second, for the notion
that Candesa looks after all temple property seems unlikely to me to be ancient.
Candesa and Temple Property
As Edholm (among others) has observed (Edholm 1984:82) numerous Cola-
period Tamil inscriptions refer to Candesvara as the handler of temple property
and the arbitrator in all major property transactions (e.g. IPS 90, 96, 135,
136, 140). In this capacity he may be referred to as the lord's first servant
mulabhrtya (e.g. IPS 96) or adidasa (e.g. SII, vol. 1, Nos. 84, 85, 89, 110, 112
and 131). The earliest of these that I have noted is IPS 90 of Tiruvilarikuti,
dated to the 28th regnal year of Rajaraja I (viz. 1012-13 AD), but somewhat
earlier instances no doubt exist. 149 This appears not to be a function alluded
to elsewhere, and it may not emerge until the tenth century. It is possible that
it is more ancient, but it seems likely to me that it developed because of the
blurring of the categories of property and nirmdlya. According to the passage of
the Jhanaratnavall that we have seen, various categories of property — cattle,
land, gold, cloth, jewellery — are clearly excluded from Candesa's domain. But
elsewhere we find all varieties of property classed in a potentially somewhat
confusing six-fold categorisation of nirmdlya. Perhaps the earliest attestation is
in Bhoja's Siddhdntasdrapaddhati (electronic edition of SANDERSON 2005*):
nirmalyabhedah kathyante. devasvam devadravyam naivedyam nivedam canda-
dravyam nirmdlyam ceti. devasambandhi gramadi devasvam. vastralankaradi
devadravyam. devartham upakalpitam naivedyam. tad evotsrstam nivedam.
candaya dattam candadravyam. bahir nihksiptam nirmdlyam. visarjite 'pi
deve pindikastham pavitrakadyam nirmdlyam na bhavati. sadvidham api
nirmdlyam na jighren na lahghayen na dadyan na vikrinlta. dattva kravyado
bhavati, bhuktva matangah, langhane siddhihanih. aghranad vrkah (vrkah]
the Parakhya, and the Mrgendra. The early pratisthatantras I cannot fit into this
rough map: their subject-matter is largely so different. An attempt at dating a few
scriptures relative to one another on the basis of their accounts of pratistha has
been made by Takashima 2005.
149 p ro f essor Leslie Orr has gathered further material on this which I believe she soon
intends to publish.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
em. [cf. SP2, 3:64d] : vrksah AB), sparsanat strltvam, ayathadahane candalah,
vikraye sabarah.
The various types of nirmalya are explained: devasva, devadravya, naivedya,
niveda, candadravya and nirmalya. [Among these,] devasva refers to villages
and the like that belong to the god; devadravya refers to cloths and ornaments;
naivedya refers to [food] that has been prepared for the sake of the god; niveda is
the same as the above once it has been touched and left; candadravya is what has
been given to Canda; nirmalya is what is thrown outside. Such things as pavit-
ra&a-threads that remain on the pindika even after the god has been invited to
depart do not become nirmalya. One should not smell, step on, give or sell any of
the six types of nirmalya. If one should give it, one becomes a flesh-eating demon
[in one's next birth]; if one should eat it, one becomes an outcaste (matangah);
if one should step on it, one loses one's yogic powers; if one should smell it, one
becomes a wolf; it one should touch it, one becomes a woman; if one burns it
inappropriately, a Candala; if one sells it, a hunter.
Nirmalya here, it seems, is a sub-category within nirmalya. . .Making Candesa
responsible for one category must have led to his being held responsible for the
others too.
Plate 39. An old (or perhaps just crudely fashioned) Candesa to the North-East
of the linga in the Nagesvara Temple at Begur, Bangalore Taluk, Bangalore Dt.
For this further evidence of Candesa's spread in Karnataka, I am grateful to N.
Ramaswamy. The headdress, which is not ajatabhara, appears to be decorated
with a large flower. Here it is the right leg which rests on the seat and the left leg
that dangles down. The implement in the right hand is an axe; the left hand rests
on the left thigh. As often, he wears heavy jewellery (earrings, necklaces, yajnopa-
vita, ahgada and bracelets) and udarabandha. Photo: EFEO (G. Ravindran).
Some conclusions
We have now covered so much material that it is difficult to draw together the
threads. But we can start to do so by restating the question we asked at the
outset: who was Candesa originally? and who did he become?
Among the common preconceptions about Candesa that we mentioned at
the beginning, the notion that he is exclusively or even primarily a South Indian
figure seems now quite exploded. But it is indeed in South India, and particularly
in the Tamil-speaking South, that Candesa's iconographic career has been most
long-lived and eventful.
As for whether Candesa is fundamentally a Saiddhantika figure, our answer
must be equivocal. Acharya's hypothesis that Canda was at one time and for
certain groups a form of Siva himself certainly seems possible. On the icono-
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Who is Candesa ?
graphical side, the staff-bearing, standing ascetic shown on the Mathura pillar
could, arguably, have evolved into the early seated, club wielding figures that
we find in the Tamil-speaking South of India, some of which, like the figure
on the Mathura pillar, have also often been mistakenly identified as images of
Lakulisa. (But, as Barker has suggested, these figures could be weapon-deities
rather than forms of Siva, and moreover, as Edholm has suggested (1998:55),
if one is looking to identify a South Indian iconographic type that might be con-
nected with Lakulisa, a more likely candidate is the teacher 'Daksinamurti' (see
PLATE 31).) Furthermore, the hypothesis that Canda was incorporated and
'tamed' by the Mantramarga (tantric Saivism), where he resurfaces as the con-
sumer of a new and higher deity's nirmdlya seems conceivable. But while we
admit these hypotheses to be possible, they remain only hypotheses. If Canda
is indeed originally Siva for certain followers of the Atimarga, then we can of
course reply that Candesa was not originally Saiddhantika. But it might indeed
be that the Candesa whom we associate with the consumption of nirmdlya and
with the punishment of transgressions is a figure who developed in the early
Siddhanta. We have emphasised that what appears to be the earliest surviving
text of the Mantramarga, namely the Nisvdsatattvasamhitd, appears to predate
the division of tantric Saivism into Siddhanta, Varna, Daksina, etc. But it is clear
nonetheless that the Nisvdsatattvasamhitd 'became' Saiddhantika once that cat-
egory came into existence. And we have seen that Candesa occurs only rarely
in non-Saiddhantika tantric material. Furthermore, we have commented that
none of the sculpted figures of Candesa can be proven to predate the arrival
in the South of the Saiva Siddhanta. This means that we cannot conclusively
reject the possibility that the nirmdlya-bearing Candesa was from the first a
Saiddhantika figure. Nevertheless, it seems to me unlikely that the many early
shrines for which Candesa was carved were from the first all Saiddhantika. If
temples in South India were really designed primarily as an iconographic expres-
sion of Saiddhantika liturgy and thought, then we would surely expect to find a
much better match. And yet, as Brunner observes, in an article that deserves
to be better known among historians of Saiva art,
There is no correspondence between the series of sculpted images that a temple
houses and the series of Powers that are either invoked (for a finite period of time)
in the course of the worship that takes place there or installed (theoretically for
ever) in the course of the inaugural rites in particular parts of the building. 150
One of the factors that suggests a non-Saiddhantika background is the early
150 Brunner 1990:28: 'II n'existe aucune correspondance entre la serie des images
sculptees qu'un temple abrite et la serie des Puissances qui sont, soit invoquees
(pour une duree finie) lors des cultes qui y prennent place, soit "deposees" (en
principe pour toujours) pendant les rites inauguraux, dans telle ou telle partie du
batiment ou des cours.'
-413-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
prominence of the club in sculpture. In our literary sources, from the very first,
Candesa is associated with the axe rather than with the club, and we have come
up with no explanation of the gradual transition from the club to the axe in
South Indian images. The non-Saiddhantika South Indian aetiological legend of
Vicarasarman seems to reflect and explain it in mythological terms: as the future
Candesa grasps his staff to swipe at his father's legs, it transforms into an axe.
It therefore seems more likely to me, that the many undatable but early
free-standing Candesas that we find in South India are independent of the Saiva
Siddhanta and that Candesa has been incorporated into the Siddhanta from an
existing tradition. We may recall that for the eleventh-century Somasambhu,
Candesvara is primarily worshipped in fixed, man-made lingas, i.e. those of tem-
ples, and not in the context of private worship by Saiddhantika initiates. His as-
sociation with the Siddhanta today might therefore be the result of the Siddhanta
having gradually appropriated to itself the role of decreeing how temple worship
should be conducted in South India.
Where then did the tradition come from? Perhaps Candesa as nirmalya-
dharin was originally part of a culture of temple worship that belonged to none
of the theological schools that we know of today. Perhaps a wild-haired and fierce
South-facing and typically Southern archetype-deity 151 gradually became differ-
entiated into distinct iconographic types, such as TJaksinamurti', Bhiksatana,
dreadlocked door-guardian, and Candesa, and the last of these became associ-
ated with the receiving of nirmalya? Perhaps another Pasupata cult, rather than
the Saiva Siddhanta, had the strategy of taming the chief deity of a rival school
to become a nirmalya deity who was then simply adopted into the Mantramarga?
Another possibility is that no such 'taming' of a rival group's deity occurred at all:
food offerings to the linga became invested with terrible power and had therefore
to be consumed by an especially fierce form of Siva himself, who was represented
with an inherited Pasupata iconography, 152 or by a fierce gana, or by a weapon-
deity
Plate 40. Archaic axe-wielding Candesa to the North-East of the lihga but inside
the ardhamandapa in the Mulanatha temple in Bahur, Pondicherry. The axe
blade here points inwards. Photo: N. Ramaswamy
I close with a couple of observations about why Candesa should have had a flour-
isi p or th e ij^ between wild hair and wildness, which Dr. Charlotte Schmid has
pointed out to me, see description of Plate 25.
152 Less likely, perhaps, is that early figures represented Pasupata ascetics, for wearing
the nirmalya was one of the distinctive practices of Paficarthika Pasupatas in their
vyaktalihga stage (Pasupatasutra 1:5). When they were absent, some sculptural
representation might have been supplied to fill their place.
-414-
Who is Candesa ?
ishing career in South Indian sculpture and not elsewhere. Part of the answer
to this riddle is that we can assume, from Cambodian inscriptions and from the
Western Indian manuals that Dhaky has brought to light, that in fact Candesa
was indeed represented elsewhere, and we must suppose that such represen-
tations have either been destroyed or have not been recognised because their
iconographies were so different. The startlingly different Nepalese icons make
this point palpably. Furthermore, I should emphasise that areas other than the
Tamil-speaking South and Nepal have received scant attention in this article be-
cause of the limitations of my knowledge about them: other sorts of images of
Candesa may well come to light. 153 But it seems almost certain that his flourish-
ing in the South was in part a consequence of the popularity of the aetiological
legend known to Tamil sources of the transformation of the shepherd Vicara-
sarman into the nirmalya-receiving Candesa, the first servant of the Lord and
the archetype of the Mahesvara devotee.
153 Both Valerie Gillet and Peter Bisschop have independently suggested to me
a possible Candesa at the ruined late Gupta Saiva temple in Nachna in Madhya
Pradesh: see Williams 1983:105-14 and particularly Plate 163. Amongst these
miscellaneous fragments of sculpted stone, the one in the right of the photograph
shows a seated figure with the legs crossed at the ankles, wearing a crown, but also
matted locks falling to the side of the head, a band-like necklace, heavy earrings
and strap-like sacred thread. I cannot interpret the lower garments and the figure's
right hand is broken off, but the left hand holds up an axe.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
WORKS CONSULTED
Abbreviations
ARIE Annual Reports on Indian Epigraphy
EFEO Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient
EI Epigraphia Indica
GOML Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras
IFI Institut Francais d'Indologie (name of IFP used in old publications)
IFP Institut Francais de Pondichery/French Institute of Pondicherry
IPS Inscriptions of Pudukkottai State (see s.v. Pudukkottai below)
KSTS Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies
NAK National Archives of Kathmandu
NGMPP Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project
SII South Indian Inscriptions
SP Somasambhupaddhati
SP1, SP2, etc. Somasambhupaddhati volume 1, volume 2, etc.
T Transcript
TAK 1, TAK 2 Tantrikabhidhanakosa volume 1, volume 2.
Manuscripts
kalottaratantra in 150 verses. Paper Nepalese manuscript. National Archives,
Kathmandu, MS 5-4632. NGMPP Reel No. B 118/7
kiranatantra. Palm-leaf manuscript in 'Licchavi' script dated to 924 ad. National
' Archives, Kathmandu, MS 5-893. NGMPP Reel No. A 40/3.
jnanaratnavali of Jnanasiva. Oriental Research Institute, Mysore, MS P 3801 (=M r ).
Palm-leaf, Nandinagari. Also GOML MS R 14898 (=M 2 ) and its apograph IFP MS
T 231, as well as pp. 13-60 of IFP MS T 106 (the latter giving the text of what is
probably a manual based upon the JNANARATNAVALI, for see Goodall 2000:209,
fn. 11), all paper transcripts in Devanagari.
tantrasadbhava Electronic edition of Mark Dyczkowski based on NGMPP Reel Nos.
A 188/22, A 44/1, and A 44/2.
dvisatikalottara NAK 5-4632. NGMPP Reel No. B 118/7. Paper, Nagari script. The
verse and chapter numeration used in our annotation is that of Mei Yang's edition
in progress.
NISVASATATTVASAMHITA NAK MS 1-227, NGMPP Reel No. A 41/14. Palm-leaf, early
Nepalese 'Licchavi' script. Described by Hara Prasad Sastri (1905:lxxvii and 137—
140). There are two apographs, both in Devanagari and on paper: NAK MS 5-2401,
NGMPP Reel No. A 159/18, and Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine,
London, Sanskrit MS 1.33. The verse and chapter numeration used in our annota-
tion is that of Goodall's edition in progress. Diwakar Acharya, Peter Bisschop
and Nirajan Kafle helped Goodall to produce the first complete transcription.
[PAUSKARAl-PARAMESVARA Cambridge University Library MS Add. 1049 (codex uni-
cus). Palm-leaf, early Nepalese 'Licchavi' script. Described by Bendall (1883:27-
8).
PRAYASCITTASAMUCCAYA of Hrdayasiva. Cambridge University Library MS Add. 2833.
Palm-leaf, early Newari script. Copied in Bhaktapur in the reign of Anandadeva
and dated 1157/8 ad (samvat 278). Described by Bendall (1888:550-1). Cited from
preliminary transcription of R. Sathyanarayanan.
brhatkalottara NAK MS pro 89. NGMPP B 24/59. Palm-leaf, hooked Newari. NAK
MS pam 779. NGMPP B 25/2. Palm-leaf, Nagari with prsthamatra vowel-notation.
bhavacudamani Described by Stein (1894) as MS No. 5291 of the Shri Raghunath Tem-
ple MSS Library in Jammu (now in the collection of the Shri Ranbir Sanskrit Re-
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Who is Candesa ?
search Institute in Jammu). Paper, Kashmirian Nagari (codex unicus). (A com-
mentary on the MAYASANGRAHA by Ramakantha II's only known pupil, Vidya-
kantha II.)
mayasangraha. NAK MS 1-1537, NGMPP Reel No. A 31/18 {codex unicus). Palm-leaf,
Newari script.
mohacudottara. NAK MS 5-1977, NGMPP Reel No. A 182/2. Paper, Devanagari.
sivadharmasangraha. Cambridge MS Add. 1645 and Add. 1694. Palm-leaf, twelfth-
century Newari script. (An edition, based on several manuscripts, in being pre-
pared by Anil Kumar ACHARYA.)
Also IFP T. 32 and 510, paper transcripts in Devanagari.
SARVAJnAnottaratantra NAK MS 1-1692. NGMPP Reel No. A 43/12. Palm-leaf,
early Nepalese 'Licchavi' script. Described by Sastri (1905:lxxiv-lxxv and 85-6).
Also GOML MS D 5550 and IFP T. Nos. 334, 760, paper transcripts in Devanagari.
The verse and chapter numeration used in our annotation is that of Goodall's
edition in progress.
SIDDHANTASARAPADDHATI ofBhoja. See SANDERSON 2005*.
Printed Sources
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
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Sanderson, Alexis, 2004. 'The Saiva Religion among the Khmers (Part I)', Bulletin de
VEcole francaise d'Extreme-Orient 90-91 (2003-2004), pp. 349-462.
Sanderson, Alexis, 2005. 'Religion and the State: Saiva Officiants in the Territory of
the King's Brahmanical Chaplain', Indo-Iranian Journal 47 (2005), pp. 229-300.
Sanderson, Alexis, 2005*. Unpublished e-text of Bhoja's Siddhantasarapaddhati,
based upon two Nepalese palm-leaf manuscrips: NAK 1-1363, NGMPP B 28/29,
completed in Samvat 197 (1077/8 ad) and NAK 5-743, NGMPP B 28/19, completed
Samvat 231 [a la 1] (1111/2 AD).
Sanderson, Alexis, 2006a. 'The Date of Sadyojyotis and Brhaspati'.Cracou; Indological
Studies VIII (2006), pp. 39-91.
Sanderson, Alexis, 2006b. 'The Lakulas: New Evidence of a System Intermediate Be-
tween Pancarthika Pasupatism and Agamic Saivism', Indian Philosophical Annual
24 (2003-2005), pp. 143-217.
Sanderson, Alexis, 2007. Atharvavedins in Tantric Territory: The Angirasakalpa
Texts of the Oriya Paippaladins and their Connection with the Trika and the
Kalikula, with critical editions of the Parajapavidhi, the Paramantravidhi, and
the *BhadrakalT-mantravidhiprakarana\ The Atharvaveda and its Paippalada
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Who is Candesa ?
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Pondicherry Centre of the Ecole franf aise d'Extreme-Orient
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Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
— The Sanskrit Text Restored from the Vajracdryanayottama —
Kimiaki TANAKA
1 Introduction
The Srl-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi (hereafter: Vimsatividhi) at-
tributed to Nagabodhi/Nagabuddhi, 1 who belonged to the Arya school of interpre-
tation of the Guhyasamdjatantra, is a ritual manual for the 32-deity mandala of
the Guhyasamdjatantra centered on Aksobhyavajra. It is one of the basic texts
for mandala rites in late Tantric Buddhism and considerable importance has
been attached to it in Tibetan Buddhism, especially in the dGe-lugs-pa school. In
the Tibetan Tripitaka, there is another ritual manual for the 32-deity mandala
centered on Aksobhyavajra attributed to Nagarjuna, the founder of the Arya
school. But Tsoh-kha-pa deemed it to be a spurious work composed at a later
date. Therefore, ritual manuals of the Guhyasamaja-mandala composed by the
dGe-lugs-pas are mainly based on the Vimsatividhi.
Rahula Sankrtyayana writes that he discovered a Sanskrit manuscript of
the Vimsatividhi in Tibet, 2 but it went missing during the Cultural Revolution.
Some time ago I discovered that the Vajracdryanayottama, a Sanskrit manu-
script in a private collection photographed by the Nepal-German Manuscript
Preservation Project, 3 includes a work combining the text of the Vimsatividhi
with explanatory comments. In the following, I propose to introduce the
Vimsatividhi, hitherto unknown even to experts in Tantric Buddhism, mainly
on the basis of the Sanskrit text recovered from the Vajracdryanayottama.
1 Nagabodhi has the same name as one of the eight patriarchs of the Japanese Shin-
gon sect, but it is not clear whether they are one and the same person.
According to the Shingon sect, he inherited Esoteric Buddhism from Nagarjuna
and transmitted it to Jingangzhi (Skt. Vajrabodhi, 671-741). Nagabodhi is said to
have lived for hundreds of years although he looked as if he was only 40 years old
when he met Vajrabodhi in south India.
In some manuscripts his name is given as Nagabuddhi. In Tibet, Tson-kha-pa is
said to have wanted to visit India in order to study the difficult points of the Arya
school under Klu-byan (i.e., Nagabodhi), but was dissuaded from doing so by one of
his teachers, lHo-brag Grub-chen, and it is evident that the legend of Nagabodhi's
longevity had been widely disseminated.
2 Rahula Sankrtyayana, "Second Search of Sanskrit Palm-leaf Mss. in Tibet,"
J.B.O.R.S. 23-i (1937), p. 45, Manuscript No. 302.
3 N.G.M.P.P., Running No. E-18322, Reel No. E 920/12.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
2 The Vimsatividhi and the Vajracaryanayottama
I have already described the Vajracaryanayottama in earlier articles, but be-
cause this is my first article on this text in English, I shall briefly summarize
its content once again. The Vajracaryanayottama is a palm-leaf manuscript con-
sisting of 46 folios, and on the basis of the handwriting the folios can be divided
into three groups: A (4 folios), B (19 folios), and C (23 folios). The text of the
Vimsatividhi belongs to Group B, and the Vajracaryanayottama also contains
several valuable fragments of other texts of the Arya school. 4 At first, I thought
that the manuscripts of a commentary on the Vimsatividhi (Group B) and of the
Vajracaryanayottama (Group A and C) had been mixed up in a single work since
the start of the Vajracaryanayottama belongs to Group A while the end belongs to
Group C. But it was subsequently brought to my notice that another manuscript
of the Vajracaryanayottama is included in Sector B of photograph Xcl4/30 among
the manuscripts photographed by Rahula Sarikrtyayana and later acquired by
the Niedersachsische Stats- und Universitatsbibliothek, Gottingen, and that it
was possible to compare the Kathmandu manuscript with the Gottingen photo-
graph.
Furthermore, Toru Tomabechi has discovered correspondences between the
two manuscripts not only in Groups A and C but also in Group B of the Kath-
mandu manuscript. But the Vimsatividhi is not included in the Gottingen pho-
tograph. Moreover, several folios of the Kathmandu manuscript do not corre-
spond to the Gottingen photograph. 5 Consequently, the situation has become
more problematic than before.
3 Twenty Rites
Next, I would like to describe the content of the Vimsatividhi. As is suggested
by its title, the Vimsatividhi is composed of instructions for twenty rites (vidhi).
Furthermore, Nagabodhi explains the twenty rites in verses 3-8 of Chapter 1
("Bhumisodhanavidhi") as follows. (Unfortunately this part is missing in the
Vajracaryanayottama . )
4 On texts in Group C related to the nispannakrama, see my following article (in
Japanese): "Self-Styled Madhyamika Tantrists: The Thought and Practices of the
Arya School of the Guhyasamaja Cycle," in Sunyata and Reality: Volume in Memory
of Prof. Ejima Yasunori (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 2000) (CD-ROM). Another text of the
Guhyasamaja cycle included in Group C also includes several verses identical or
similar to verses in the Vimsatividhi.
5 Toru Tomabechi, "On the So-called Vajracaryanayottama, Sanskrit Manuscript of a
Related Text," Mikkyo Zuzo 23 (2004).
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Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
dan por sa ni sbyah ba dan/
de nas sa yohs 'dzin pa dan/
phyi nas bgegs ni her zi dan/
thod le kor gyis thig gdab dan/1311
de nas sa lha sogs lhag pari
gnas dan de nas gsol gdab dan/
phyi nas slob ma lhag gnas dan/
nam mkhar thig ni gdab pa danllAII
tshon sna lha yi cho ga dan/
tshon rtsi mams ni dgye ba dan/
lha mams spyan drah hid dan nil
de nas slob ma gzug pa dah//5//
khrus kyi dkyil 'khor cho ga dan/
de nas sans rgyas dbah bskur dan/
de nas phyag mtshan dbah bskur dan/
bla ma lha dan yon ghis dah/IQII
rjes su gnah ba sbyin pa dan/
de nas gsegs gsol cho ga dan/
dkyil 'khor las ched phur pa dan/
skud pa bsdu ba hid kyah stelllll
rab bsad cho ga hi su yisl
ji Itaji Itar rgyas ses pa'il
rdo rje slob dpon mkhas pa yisl
rdul tshon dkyil 'khor bri bar byall8ll
First, purifying the site,
Then seizing the site;
Afterwards elimination of the ob-
structing demons
And pitching the lines with chalk.
Then the preparation of the Earth god-
dess
And beseeching the deities;
Afterwards the preparation of the dis-
ciple
And pitching the lines in space.
The rite of the five-colored powders,
Applying colored powders,
Invitation of the deities,
Then drawing the disciple into the
mandala.
The rite of the bathing mandala,
Then initiation of the Buddha,
Then the emblem initiation
And two offerings to the guru and the
deities.
Conferral of permission,
Then sending the deities away,
Releasing the daggers from the
mandala,
And withdrawing the thread.
With the aforementioned twenty rites
A learned vajracarya,
Well-versed in the reality (of the rit-
ual),
Should draw a powder mandala.
Alex Wayman has explained that the twenty rites are actually twenty-one,
and he has also classified these rites into seven categories, namely, (1) Rites of
the site, (2) Rites of preparatory acts, (3) The main rite, beginning with construc-
tion of mandala, (4) Initiations of the flask, (5) Offerings, (6) Permission and
Unification, and (7) Concluding Acts (cf. accompanying table). 6
6 Alex Wayman, Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1977),
pp. 161-162. In the accompanying table, I have adopted Wayman's numbering of
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
But there are differences in their names and order as given in the manu-
script of the Vajrdcdryanayottama, as listed by Wayman, and as found in the
Vimsatividhi included in the bsTan-'gyur edited by the National Center for Ti-
betan Studies in China. 7
Moreover, the aforementioned apocryphal ritual manual attributed to
Nagarjuna lists twenty rites in a different manner as follows:
de la dkyil 'khor cho ga nil
yan lag mam phye hi su stel
sa gzi sbyah dan byin brlabs dan/
yohs su gzuh dan bsruh ba dan//
sa yi lha dan dkyil 'khor dan/
bum pa mams dan slob ma dag/
sta gon du ni gnas pa dan/
thig gdab pa yi cho ga dan//
de bzin rdul tshon dgye ba dan/
dkyil 'khor byin gyis brlab pa dan/
de la mchod pa'i bye brag dan/
slob dpon bdag hid 'jug pa dan//
de bzin slob ma gzug pa dan/
bum pa'i dbah dan gsah ba dan/
ses rab ye ses dbah dan nil
de bzin du ni bzi pa dahll
rab gnas dan ni sbyin sreg stel
dkyil 'khor gyi ni yan lag mchogl
'di dag cho ga hi su'oll
In this case, the rites of the mandala
Are divided into twenty parts:
Purification of the site, empowerment,
Seizing and protecting [the site],
Preparation of the Earth goddess,
The mandala, the vases (used in rit-
ual)
And the disciples,
[Then] the rite of pitching the thread
And applying colored powders,
The empowerment of the mandala
And making a special offering to it,
The entry of the dcdrya [into the
mandala]
And the entry of the disciples,
The initiation of the vase and of the se-
cret,
The initiation of the knowledge of wis-
dom,
And the fourth [initiation],
The consecration and the fire offering.
These parts of the mandala [ritual]
Are said to be the twenty rites.
A noticeable difference between the Vimsatividhi and Nagarjuna's manual
is the incorporation of three initiations peculiar to late Tantric Buddhism in
the latter. This fact supports Tsori-kha-pa's suspicions about the authenticity
the twenty rites.
7 Zhongguo Zangxue Zhongxin, ed., Danzhur (Collated Version), Vol. 18 (Beijing:
Zhongguo Zangxue Chubanshe, 1997), pp. 364-408. In the accompanying table,
I have given the numbering of the twenty rites in the bsTan-'gyur edition in paren-
theses.
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Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
of Nagarjuna's manual.
On the other hand, Padmasrimitra's Mandalopayika (University of Tokyo,
Matsunami No. 280), which belongs to the same Arya school of interpretation of
the Guhyasamdjatantra, lists the rites of the mandala as follows:
dddv arghavidhih proktd dvitiye bhuparigrahahl tritiyam tiptasiitram
(sic) jhdnasutram caturthakamll pahcamo rajasdm pdtah sa(2a8)stam
kalasddhivdsanam (sic)/ saptamah kalasanydso (sic) mandalasddhanam
astamamll pratisthd navamis ca dasami homakriyd matdll ekddasi visrstih sydd
ity uktam tatva(sic)sahgrahell
But strangely Padmasrimitra's ritual manual does not follow the above
list, and to the best of my knowledge this passage is not included in the
Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha.
At any rate, there might have been a custom in medieval India to present
the list of rites to be explained in a ritual manual, but the number and order of
these rites were not fixed.
4 The Text Recovered from the Vajracaryanayottama
I have already published all chapters of the Vimsatividhi recovered from the
Vajracaryanayottama except for verses 1-17 of the first chapter, "Bhumisodhanavidhi,"
which are missing in the manuscript. 8
As had already already been anticipated from the Tibetan translation and
other Sanskrit ritual manuals which quote the Vimsatividhi, the text consists of
verses. Most of them are slokas and some of them are tristubhs, and there is only
one sragdhara. Their metre is comparatively correct, and the several irregular
verses are not beyond the range of what was metrically permitted as vipula.
The total number of verses is 313, and in many cases one verse of the Ti-
betan translation corresponds to one verse of the original recovered from the
Vajracaryanayottama. However, I have noticed the existence of several excep-
tions. Further, mantras are inserted between these verses. Moreover, in the
Vajracaryanayottama explanatory comments have been inserted without any in-
dication that they are additional comments. These explanations are long prose
sections or sloka verses. Therefore, without referring to the Tibetan translation,
it is very difficult to recover the original text from our manuscript.
5 Parallel Passages from Other texts
In the process of romanizing the text, I noticed the existence of quite a number
of identical or similar verses in other texts, and this was extremely helpful in the
8 Cf. "Romanized texts" in the accompanying table.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
restoration of the original Sanskrit from the single extant manuscript.
The Kriydsamuccaya in particular, as Munenobu Sakurai surmised from
the Tibetan translation, 9 frequently refers to the Vimsatividhi without mention-
ing its sources, especially in the section on initiation rites (including prepara-
tion of the disciple). The Vajravali quotes the Vimsatividhi seven times 10 as
Nagabuddhipada. In addition to these, there are many identical or similar verses
to the Vimsatividhi in the Vajravali. The reason that Abhayakaragupta did not
mention his source might be that many ritual manuals share these verses and
he could not specify a single source.
I could not refer to the entire text of the Kriydsamgrahapanjikd since it is too
voluminous, and I referred mainly to Chapter 6 since it explains the construction
of the mandala, including rituals employing it. But identical or similar verses are
not as frequent as in the Kriydsamuccaya. The reason for this may be that the
Kriydsamuccaya mainly explains the rituals on the basis of not the Guhyasamdja
but the Vajradhatumandala.
On the other hand, there are not many quotations from the Guhyasamdjatantra
except for mantras and stotras incorporated into the ritual procedure.
In addition to these, I confirmed the occurrence of identical or similar
verses in the Vairocandbhisambodhisutra, Sarvatathdgatatattvasamgraha,
Paramddya, Sarvabuddhasamdyoga, Samputodbhava, etc.
6 The Date of Its Composition
At present, it is difficult to determine the date of composition of the Vimsatividhi.
However, I found several pieces of circumstantial evidence which point to the
date of its composition. For example, the Vimsatividhi quotes the Sarva-
buddhasamdyoga (verses X-16, 17) as the Samvara. The same tendency is
found also in the Tattvasiddhi, 11 Jndnasiddhi, 12 Ndmamantrdrthdvalokini, 13
9 Munenobu Sakurai, Indo Mikkyo girei kenkyu — Koki Indo Mikkyo no kanjo (Kyoto:
Hozokan, 1996), pp.33, 44.
10 Lupta Bauddha Vacana Samgraha, bhaga 1 (Sarnath, 1990), pp. 29-30.
11 On texts quoted in the Tattvasiddhi, see Mitsutoshi Moriguchi, A Catalogue of the
Buddhist Tantric Manuscripts in the National Archives of Nepal and Kesar Library
(Tokyo, 1989), p. 51.
12 On texts quoted in the Jndnasiddhi, see Hisao Takahashi, "Jnanasiddhi daijugosho
wayaku" [A Japanese translation of Chapter 15 of the Jndnasiddhi], Buzan
Kyogaku Taikai Kenkyu Kiyo 5 (1977), pp. 114-112.
13 As far as I know, the Ndmamantrdrthdvalokini quotes the Srisamvara three times:
"kvacic ca paratlrthydndm sahadharmena nigrahah," "atyantadustaraudresu
saumyatd nopayujyate prajhopdyamayam manyum cakruh sarvatathdgatdh" and
"subhago bhagavdn vajri sarvasattvdrthakdrandt durbhagdh srdvakdh sarve
atyantaparinirvrtdh." These passages correspond to the Sarvabuddhasamdyoga,
verses IV- 19, V-48 and VII-22 respectively.
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Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
Pradlpoddyotana 14 and Caryamelapakapradipa. 15
Next, the Vimsatividhi classifies tantras as follows:
by a rgyud cho ga ma gtogs pari Apart from ritual manuals of the
spyod dan gni ga'i rnal 'byor gyisl Kriydtantra,
grub pa'i dkyil 'khor sans rgy as nil Mandalas completed by the
kun lugs las 'ohs yah dag bshags/ll-2/l Caryd(tantra)
And Two Yoga(tantras) are praised as
Having come from the traditions of all
the Buddhas.
On the other hand, in the *Samajasadhanavyavasthdna, attributed to the
same author, the following interesting passage occurs:
gsol pal aha
de kho na hid bsdus pa la sogs pa dahl tatvasamgrahddy
gni ga'i rgyud las ni ubhayatantra-
zal gcig par rab tu grags rial prasiddha ekamukham
ci'i phyir 'dir kim artham atra
zal gsum pa Ita bur snah bar 'gyurl trimukhdkdra[h] samdrsyata iti
Both passages indicate that Nagabodhi adopted ubhayatantra as a cat-
egory for the classification of tantras. The rNying-ma-pa order of Tibetan
Buddhism also regards ubhayatantra I upatantra as one of the three categories
of outer tantras. According to rNying-ma-pas, upatantralupayana corresponds
to the Caryatantras of the fourfold classification of the new Tantric schools
of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsoh-kha-pa also explains in his commentary on the
*Samajasadhanavyavasthana that gni ga'i rgyud (=ubhayatantra) appears in
the above as the equivalent of the Caryatantras of the fourfold classification of
Tibetan Buddhism.
But in the Vimsatividhi, Nagabodhi explains that the carya and ubhayayoga
are different (=spyod dan gni ga'i rnal 'byor gyis). Therefore, the Tibetan trans-
lation of the Samajasadhanavyavasthana — "de kho na nid bsdus pa la sogs
14 The Pradipodyotana quotes the Samvara twice: "sarvakasavaka.se srivajrasattvah
pratisthitafh]" (Guhyasamajatantrapradipodyotanatika [Patna, 1984], p. 20) and
"sarvayogo hi bhagavan vajrasattvafs]" (ibid, p. 64). These passages correspond
to the Sarvabuddhasamdyoga, verses V-90 and 11-21 respectively.
15 The Caryamelapakapradipa quotes the Sarvabuddhasamdyoga as the Srisamvara
twice (Caryamelapakapradipa of Acdrya Aryadeva [Sarnath, 2000], pp. 81, 89).
In addition, the Caryamelapakapradipa quotes the same text three times as the
Sarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvara-nayalmahdyogatantra, the full title of
the text (Lupta Bauddha Vacana Samgraha, bhaga 2 [Sarnath, 2001], pp. 83-84).
-431-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
pa dan/ gni ga'i rgyud las ni = tatvasamgrahady ubhayatantra" — seems to me
a mistranslation. It should be interpreted as ubhayatantra beginning with the
Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha.
I think that Nagabodhi's intention was that ubhayatantralubhayayoga
refers to the Yogatantras beginning with the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha
and the Mahayogatantras beginning with the Guhyasamaja.
Anyway, Nagabodhi's classification of Buddhist tantras is unique, and it also
suggests that the Vimsatividhi was composed before the establishment of the
traditional fourfold (kriya, carya, yoga, mahayoga) or fivefold (kriya, carya, yoga,
mahayoga, yoganiruttara) classification.
From the above circumstantial evidence, the Vimsatividhi can be provi-
sionally dated to the period from the middle of the 8th century to the early
9th century. This coincides with the date of Vilasavajra, the author of the
Namamantrarthavalokini, Santaraksita, the author of the Tattvasiddhi, and
the period when Tantric Buddhism was introduced into Tibet for the first time.
However, it is about one hundred years later than the estimated dates of
Nagabodhi, one of the eight patriarchs of the Japanese Shingon sect.
7 Conclusion
In the above I have focused on the Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-
vidhi, a ritual manual for the 32-deity mandala of the Guhyasamajatantra cen-
tred on Aksobhyavajra, and on the basis of the above observations it would ap-
pear that it represents a very early stage of late Tantric Buddhism.
At the same time, the Vimsatividhi, presenting the standard form of the
mandala ritual, influenced ritual manuals composed after the 10th century. This
fact is confirmed by the seven quotations by Abhayakaragupta in his Vajravali.
On the other hand, the ritual procedures set forth in the Vimsatividhi
preserve elements of foregoing Esoteric Buddhism, particularly that of the
Guhyatantra, Vairocanabhisambodhisutra, Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha and
Paramadya.
Therefore, we can deem it to be a text of the stage of transition from the
middle phase to the late phase of Tantric Buddhism.
At present I am preparing to combine all my previous articles published
separately on different occasions and to attach a general introduction to this
text.
The Eastern Institute, Tokyo
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Nagabodhi's Sri-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi
Synopsis of the Sn-guhyasamajamandalopayika-vimsati-vidhi (Peking No. 2675)
Tibetan
Sanskrit
Romanized texts
QJ
QJ
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B
2
1(1). sa sbyori ba
1 .bhumisodhanavidhih
Chusei Indo no gakusaiteki
kenkyu
2(2). sa yons su gzuri ba
2 . bhumiparigrahavidhih
The Mikkyo Bunka 213
3(3).bgegs fie bar zi ba
3 . vighnopasamanavidhih
The Memoirs of
the Institute of Oriental
Culture No. 146
o
IS
o
a
QJ
5-
4(4).thog le kor gyis thig gdab pa
4.khatikasutrapatanavidhih
The Mikkyo Zuzo 23
5(5).sa'i lha mo dan
bum pa lhag par gnas pa
5.prthivldevata-
kalasadhivasanavidhih
Three Mountains and
Seven Rivers (English)
6(6).gsol gdab pa
vijflanavidhih
7(7). slob ma lhag par gnas pa
7 . sisyadhivasanavidhih
The Mikkyo Bunka 209
QJ
*C
c
'<s
s
(8). nam mkha' la thig gdab pa
8 . akasasutrapatanavidhih
JIBS 50-1
8(9).tshon sna lha
9.rarigajapavidhih
JIBS 49-1
9(10).tshon rtsi 'gyed pa
lO.rarigapatanavidhih
(S
4J
-S
O
a
a
10(ll).spyan drah ba
avahavidhih
The Mikkyo Bunka 203
11(12). slob ma gzug pa
1 2 . sisyapravesavidhih
The Mikkyo Bunka 205
(13).khrus kyi dkyil 'khor
1 3 .snanamandalavidhih
The Memoirs of
the Institute of Oriental
Culture No. 142
chu'i dbah bskur ba
14.udakabhisekah adarsajflanam
12. cod pan gyi dbari bskur
mukutabhisekah
samatajnanam
13.rdo rje dbari bskur
pratyaveksajnanam
rdo rje dril bu'i dbari bskur
vajraghantabhiseka
krtva(.v('c)nusthanajnanam
14. me lori gi dbari bskur
darppanabhisekah
15. miri gi dbari bskur
14.namabhisekah// suvisuddha-
dharmmadhatujflanam
16(14). phyag mtshan gyi dbari bskur
1 5 .praharanabhisekah
vacaryyabhisekavidhih
C
O
17(15).lha la yon 'bul ba
1 6.devadaksinavidhih
The Memoirs of
the Institute of Oriental
Culture No. 144
18(16). bla ma la yon 'bul ba
17.gurudaksinavidhih
o
60
1
■a
e
o
19(17). slob mala
rjes su gnari ba sbyin pa
18.sisyabhisekanujavidhih
20(18).ne bar bsdu ba
19.upasamharavidhih
(19).phur bu dbyuri ba
20.kiloddharanavidhih
(20).gsol ba 'debs pa
Inserted between 3 and 4
The Mikkyo Bunka 213
-433-
The Laud of the Chosen Deity,
the First Chapter of the Hevajratantrapindarthatlka
by Vajragarbha*
Francesco Sferra
Introductory Note
This is a new edition and English translation of the first chapter of Vajra-
garbha's Satsahasrika (aka Hevajratantrapindarthatlka), one of the first works
of the Kalacakra tradition.
This chapter describes the figure of the true interpreter of the Scriptures, es-
tablishes the hermeneutical criteria for their interpretation and tries — for the
first time — to give a special pivotal role to the Adibuddha, which is believed to
be the mula text of the Laghukalacakratantra. Therefore this chapter is funda-
mental for the understanding of the founding strategies of the Kalacakra system
and of its early masters, a theme that has been investigated a little bit in a paper
published in 2005 to which I refer the reader for more details. 1
The language, the style and the metre will be discussed in the introduction
of a volume that is being prepared and that contains a critical edition and an
English translation of the entire text (Sanskrit and Tibetan). Suffice here to list
the three manuscripts used and to give some information regarding the editorial
policies adopted.
* I would like to express my profound gratitude to the late Prof. Dr. Syed Hasan
Askari and the authorities of the Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute and
the Bihar Research Society of Patna for kindly having made available their valu-
able source materials through the good offices of Dr. Gustav Roth and Prof. Raffaele
Torella. A special thank you is also due to the authorities of the National Archives of
Kathmandu, of the Kaiser Library of Kathmandu, of the Istituto Italiano per 1' Africa
e l'Oriente (Rome) and of the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project for
having generously placed manuscript sources and microfilms of unpublished mate-
rial at my disposal. I would especially like to thank Prof. Raniero Gnoli and Prof.
Dr. Harunaga Isaacson for having kindly read this paper and their precious sugges-
tions; Susan Ann White for her help with the English text. This paper reproduces
with many substantial modifications the first chapter of my Doctorate thesis that
was defended on 8 th July 1999 (University of Rome "La Sapienza"). I would like to
thank Prof. David Seyfort Ruegg for kindly agreeing to read and evaluate my work.
I am indebted to him and also to Prof. Fabrizia Baldissera, from whose stimulating
comments and criticism I benefited.
1 Sferra 2005.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
K K Kaiser Library (Kathmandu) MS 128 = NGMPP, Mf C14/6. This manu-
script, in Magadhi script, consists in 33 leaves and is incomplete (missing
folios: 2, 6, 8-18, 32-39, 42-46). It begins with lokdcdravivarjita and
finishes with the famous stanza ye dharmd hetuprabhavd hetum tesdm
tathdgato hy avadat \ tesdm ca yo nirodha evamvddi mahdsramanah
|| . It has probably been written around the end of the 12 th century
The copyist, Visuddhiraksita, states in the colophon that he worked
in Vikramasila (srimadvikramasilamahdvihdre likhdpitam [sic for
likhitam ?] [ ] visuddhiraksitena svdrtham parartham ca ||). I also
used a photographic copy of this manuscript made by Giuseppe Tucci
and now held by the IsIAO library in Rome (MS 3.45, Folder 6).
K N NAK (Kathmandu) MS 3-693, vi 230 = NGMPP, Mf A693/11. This man-
uscript, in Maithili script, consists in 30 leaves (40 leaves according to
Moriguchi) and is incomplete (missing folios: 30-43, 45 ff). It begins with
om namah srihevajraya and finishes abruptly in the middle of Section
Eight with the words atra laghutantre abhisekapata. Moriguchi Mitu-
toshi points out the existence of a third manuscript of the Satsdhasrikd
kept in Kathmandu and listed in the NGMPP as Mf A 1267/6, but it is
actually this same manuscript. 2
N A manuscript originally belonging to the Nor monastery in Tibet and
now probably kept in Lhasa, 3 of which I was only able to study the pho-
tographic copy made by Rahula Sarikrtyayana in 1934 and listed by him
as IV.XVII.2.92; 4 and the one made by Giuseppe Tucci on July 21 st 1939
and now held by the IsIAO library (MS 1.20, Envelope 22/S, MT049.1-2).
This manuscript, in Magadhi script, consists in 31 leaves and is incom-
plete. It begins with om namah hemavajraya [sic] and finishes towards
the end of Section Eight with the quote of HT 1.3.14. The colophon, duly
transcribed by Sarikrtyayana, suggests that this MS has probably been
copied around the end of the 11 th century 5
Very often K K and N share the same readings against K N , which seems
to belong to a different family (cf. e.g. notes 180 and 211). The text, critically
edited here, has already been published and translated into English by Malati J.
Shendge in 2004 (pp. 7-13, 153-160). No reference to this work has been done in
2 Moriguchi 1989: 146.
3 Cf. Steinkellner 2004
4
Cf. Sarikrtyayana 1935: 36. I used a copy from the negatives of Sarikrtyayana now
kept in Gbttingen (Niedersachsische Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek) and Patna
(Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, Museum Buildings).
5 Cf. Sarikrtyayana 1935: 36, note 1.
-436-
The Laud of the Chosen Deity
the notes. Titles in text and translation are not present in the original; they have
been inserted to assist the reader. Orthography and sandhi have been silently
standardized, avagrahas have been supplied when necessary and punctuation
(dandas, dot-like dandas and double dandas) has been changed to fit the metre.
Abbreviations and Bibliography
Sigla
CIHTS Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies
Dhlh Dhlh. Review of Rare Buddhist Texts (Nos. 1-14); Journal of Rare
Buddhist Texts (Nos. 15 ff)
IsIAO Istituto Italiano per 1' Africa e l'Oriente
NAK National Archives, Kathmandu
NGMPP Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project
SOR Serie Orientale Roma
ac ante correctionem
conj. conjecture
deest omitted/absent in
em. emendation
pc post correctionem
r recto
v verso
T Kye'i rdo rje bsdus pa'i don gyi rgya cher grel pa = Tibetan Trans-
lation by Danasila and Sen dkar sakya 'od (and revised by several
people, starting with Subhutisrisanti and Cog gru tin he 'dzin bzah po
[cf. Shendge 2004: 300-301]): 1) sDe dge Edition, bsTan 'gyur rgyud,
vol. KA, Ms. lui-126r 7 , text No. 1180; 2) Peking Edition, bsTan 'gyur
rgyud, vol. 53, # 2310, pp. 1-58, Ms. ln-139u 6
(ep) equally possible
* before Sanskrit words means that these have been retranslated from
Tibetan
separates the accepted reading from the variants
separates the commentary on different lemmas within the same com-
pound
( ) in the text enclose numbers (not present in the MSS)
in the text enclose the pagination (i.e., numbers of folios) or comments
-437-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
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Gurupancasika of Aryadeva
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LTT The Laghutantratlka by Vajrapani. Critical Edition by Claudio Ci-
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Paramaksarajnanasiddhi of Pundarika
PAJS See Vimalaprabha, vol. 3, pp. 60-103. See also Gnoli 1997a.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
E.H. Johnston, The Bihar Research Society, Patna 1950.
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
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Text
Introduction
[K K lv K N lv N lv] namah srihevajraya 1 |
lokacaravivarjitam jinamayam nityoditam vyapinam
nirdvandvam 2 vimalam nirindriyasukham sarvajnam evam param |
santam cittam 3 acittacittam ajadam 4 sarvendriyam sarvato
buddhanam pranipatya kayam amrtam svabhavikam bodhaye || (l) a
pradhvastastagunodbhavani 5 vadanany 6 astau vimoksa vibhor 7
hastah 8 sodasa sunyatas ca 9 karuna etah kapalani ca |
pancasatksaravarnatattvaracita 10 skandhe siromalika
aksobhyo makute 11 'rdhacandrakulisam 12 mala kapalatmika 13 || (2)
maitryadyas ca vimoksakah sucaranah sampidya maran sthitah
klesajneyasamajayogam uraga mudrajinam 14 dvipinah 15 |
maradyavaranani yasya lavavat 16 sattvarthino 17 bhusanam
tarn natvasya ca tantraguhyagadika tika maya likhyate || (3)
srimata vajragarbhena sarvasattvahitaisina |
dasabhumisvareneyam margalabhaya yoginam 18 || (4)
pancalaksan mahatantrad alpatantre samuddhrte |
sardhasaptasate 19 'py asmin bahuvajrapadanvite || (5)
hevajracoditenaisa 20 ya 21 satsahasrika 22 mata |
seyam tantraprakasartham 23 mulatantranusarini || (6)
Criticism of Bad Teachers
acarya ye 24 bhavisyanti 25 yogacarasya desa[K K 2 missing]kah 26 |
kale pancakasaye 27 'sminn asanmargapravartakah 28 || (7)
tikam vinalpatantrani desayisyanti durnayah |
parastridravyalobhena narake [K N 2r] gamanodyatah 29 || (8)
kecit tikam karisyanti pancabhijnadibhir vina |
tarkasastrabhimanena yogacaravidambakah || (9)
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
buddhatvam vajrasattvatvam sekaih sahgrhya yatnatah |
vayam vajradharah kecid 30 vadisyanti nara nrnam || (10)
avandya bhiksavah sarve silasamvaradharinah 31 |
sitavastra 32 vayam vandyah svayam vajradhara bhuvi 33 || (11)
sevaka vanijah 34 sudrah krsikarmaratas 35 ca ye |
saddharmavikraya murkha abhogaparibhoginah 36 || (12) h
guravas te bhavisyanti 37 sisyanam marakayikah | [N 2r]
yogacaracchalenaiva 38 gopayitva 39 svayamkrtan || (13)
dosan dosaparityagakaranaya 40 vadanti 41 vai |
acaryasya guna grahya dosa naiva 42 kadacana || (14) c
dosagrahanam [sic] 43 asiddhir 44 vai sisyanam 45 natra 46 samsayah |
niskrpam krodhanam kruram stabdham lubdham asamyatam || (15)
svotkarsanam 47 ca 48 no kuryad gurum 49 sisyam ca 50 buddhiman 51 | d
idam vakyam na sisyanam desayisyanti sarvatha || (16)
niskrpah krsikarta yah 52 krodhano marmabhedakah |
kruro bhiksujanadvesi stabdhah kujnanagarvitah || (17)
lubdho 'py aparibhogarthi atimadyair 53 asamyatah |
svotkarsana 54 iha prokto gu[K N 2u]ninam dosadayakah || (18) e
The True Master
abhisekagralabdho 55 hi vajracaryas tathagataih |
dasadiglokadhatusthais 56 triskalam 57 etya vandyate 58 || (19) f
sandhyabhasam ajananto 59 namamatrena mohitah 60 |
pratiksepam jinendranam krtva yasyanti rauravam || (20)
bodhimule 'bhisikto yo vajrasattvena mastake 61 |
abhisekagralabdhah 62 sa vajracaryas 63 tathagatah || (21)
dasadigbodhisattvanam kaya ye lokadhatavah |
tatrasthaih pancabhih 64 skandhais trikalam etya vandyate 65 || (22)
nanaratnamayas 66 tesam maulayo lokadhatavah |
tatrasthair vandyate 67 buddhair vajracaryah sa yoginam || (23)
sakrd 68 vairocano mutram sukram vai 69 samayo yatha |
aksobhyas camitabhas cacaryo vajradhrk tatha || (24)
vinmutrasukramudranam acaryo dayako yatha |
kayavakcittasiddhinam dayako vajradhrk tatha || (25)
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
samvrtya ca vivrtya ca sisyanam yoginam api |
mandale bodhimule ca 70 sekah purvo 'paro tatha 71 || (26)
sandhyabhasam 72 yathasandhyam rutam nanyad yatharutam 73 |
nitartham tat tatha neyam 74 tantram [K K 3r] satkotilaksanam || (27) g
acaryasya guna ye 'tra 75 vyavaharena 76 darsitah |
vajrasattvagunas te 'pi 77 sadabhijnadilaksanah || (28)
dhiro vinito 78 matiman ksamavan arjavo 'sathah 79 |
mantratantraprayogajnah krpa[N 2v]luh 80 sastrakovidah 81 || (29)
dasatattva[K N 3r]parijnata 82 mandalalekhyakarmavit 83 |
mantravyakhyakrd 84 acaryah prasannatma 85 jitendriyah || (30) h
The Supremacy of the Monks
ebhir uktagunair 86 yukto bhiksur vajradharo bhavet |
na cellako 87 grhi tan na 88 dasa bhiksusamas 89 tayoh || (31)
dasasiksapadair 90 yuktah 91 pancasiksapadair yutah |
kotisiksapadair 92 yukto na te tulyas trayah 93 smrtah || (32) 1
mulatantre 94 yatha proktam 95 bhiksor 96 vajradharam 97 padam 98 |
gurvaradhakasisyanam" tatah 100 kincin 101 nigadyate || (33)
Quotation from the Pancalaksahevajra
nairatmadhyesito 102 vajri yathavad anupurvasah 103 |
siksapadapradanaya 104 idam 105 vacanam abravit 106 || (34)
pancasiksapadany 107 adau 108 posadhadisamanvitam 109 |
dasakusalaparityagam 110 dattva 111 kuryad upasakam 112 || (35) 113
sravaneram 114 tatah 115 kuryad dattva 116 siksapadam 117 dasa |
kotisiksapadam 118 dattva bhiksum 119 kuryat tato vrati || (36)
pratimoksam tato 120 jnatva vaibhasikamatam tatah |
sutrantam ca tato jnatva vijnanavadam [K K 3v] svadharmatah 121 || (37) 122
tato 123 madhyamakam jnatva prajhaparamitamatam |
sarvatantrantaram jnatva 124 hevajram jnayate tatah || (38)
yanatritayaniryata ekayanaphale 125 sthitah |
sravakam pratyekam catra mahayanam trtiyakam 126 || (39)
caturtham nasti [K N 3v] bauddhanam 127 pancamam ca 128 matam muneh 129
sarvakaravaropeta 130 sunyata 131 hetur aditah || (40)
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
pranidhanat krpa pascaj jagadarthakari phalam 132 p
svartham krtva parartham hi karayed yah 133 sa buddhiman || (41)
svayam duhkhi daridro yah so 'nyesam 134 dadate katham |
sukham aisvaryasampattim 135 sattvarthakaranodyatah 136 || (42)
yavan na kriyate saksad dhetur hetuphalarthina 137 |
tavad adau phalam 138 kasman nirhetuto 139 bhavisyati 140 || (43)
mahayanat param yanam dvitiyam iha 141 kathyate |
danasiladinastanam visramaya na tattvatah || (44)
sunyata 142 sarvadharmanam prokta 143 nihsaranam maya | k
nihsaranat 144 tato hetoh pranidhanavasat 145 tatah || (45)
bhavisyati 146 niralambam 147 karunatmaphalam 148 mahat 149 |
sattvadharmaniralamba karuna trividha 150 smrta || (46) [N 3r]
pradese 'rthakari kincit 151 sattvadharmavalambini 152 |
siddhanam bodhisattvanam dasabhumau 153 sthitatmanam || (47)
dvadasahganiruddhanam sa[K K 4r]rvabhumau sthitatmanam |
sugatanam niralamba 154 jagadarthakari 155 smrta || (48) 156
yadrso yadrso hetus tadrsam tadrsam phalam 157 |
kodravebhyo na jayante 158 salayah kvacid eva hi || (49) 1
yatha bijam tatha vrkso yatha vrksas tatha phalam |
adau madhye 'vasane 159 ca 160 kalyanam vacanam mama 161 || (50) m
adau savikalpad dhetoh 162 savikalpam 163 phalam bhavet |
ante ca sarvabauddhanam 164 kalpatah 165 sunyataphalam 166 || (51)
athadau ksetrasuddhyartham kodravanam hi vapanam |
pascad vi[K N 4r]sodhite ksetre salibijasya vapanam 167 || (52)
na suddham 168 ksetram ity uktam manusyam karmabhumijam 169 |
asuddham 170 sadgatau janma subhasubhaphaloditam 171 || (53)
manusyajanmani 172 ksetre suddhe 'nalambini 173 krpa |
bijam hi vapitam tasmac chunyakalpadrumo 174 bhavet 175 || (54)
sunyatakalpavrksat 176 tv 177 anavalambakrpaphalam 178 |
cintitam 179 sarvasattvanam 180 bhavatiha na samsayah || (55)
mudramandalamantradyam 181 desitam 182 yan maya priye |
gambhirodaradharmesu 183 bhavyatavigatatmanam || (56)
mudramandalamantradyair desayisyanty anagatah |
buddhatvam vajrasattvatvam 184 acarya marakayikah || (57)
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ato bhiksur 185 mahayane desako vajradhrk smrtah |
yana[K K 4v]trayaparijnata 186 dharmasarigrahavedakah || (58)
Criticism of Bad Teachings. The Need for Good Commentaries
vedasiddhantayoganam krtanam 187 Isvaradibhih 188 |
bauddhanam 189 tantramantranam visesah 190 sunyatam 191 prati || (59) n
yo na janati mudhatma sa 192 sisyan 193 patayet khilan 194 |
karma [K N 4v] kartra 195 vina nasti 196 na karmarahitam phalam || (60)
mahamaya 197 maharaudra bhutasamharakarini 198 |
svayam karta svayam harta svayam 199 raja 200 svayam prabhuh 201 || (61)°
Isvarasya 202 yatha 203 maya Isvaro 204 'pi nigadyate |
tirthikaih sivasiddhante 205 gitadharme 206 janardanah |
durdantadamakah 207 so 'pi sadhunam palakah 208 sa ca || (62)
yada yadatra dharmasya glanir 209 bhavati bharata 210 |
adharmasya pravrttis ca tadatmanam srjamy 211 aham || (63)
sadhunam 212 raksanarthaya 213 vinasaya ca 214 duskrtam 215 |
dharmasamsthapanarthaya 216 sambha[N 3v]vami yuge yuge 217 || (64) p
evam sarvam 218 parijfiaya viparitam dharmadesanam 219 |
hevajras codayet 220 tena mam tikakaranaya vai || (65)
q natva kayavaram trilokamahitam 221 svabhavikam nirmalam
dharmakhyam sukhaduhkhabhavarahitam sambhogikam desakam |
nirmanam ca vicitrakharddhisahitam 222 mayendrajalopamam 223
vaksye 'ham laghutantraguptavacanam 224 nitartham 225 asyalpatah || (66)
hevajre jinadesanatra 226 [K K 5r] laghuke savisphuteyam 227 nrnam
laksaih pancabhir aditantranicaye buddhaih krta ya pura 228 |
slokair ekasataih 229 sahasragunitair 230 laksabhidhane 'pi va 231
anyasminn api tantrarajanicaye tikabhir arthagamah || (67)
yas tika[K N 5r]rahito 232 'lpatantranicaye 233 guptam 234 padam desayet 235
so 'mbuny aksivivarjitas ciragatasyaheh padam viksayet |
nitartham na ca neyam artham akhilam 236 tantram 237 jinair desitam
neyartham 238 yadi tikaya prakatitam 239 nitam vrtha bodhaye || (68)
sandhyabhasam asandhyabhasam aparam naitadrutam tadrutam 240
nitartham 241 na ca neyam 242 artham 243 akhilam tantram 244 jinair desitam
skandha yena vidadayo 245 'tra samalah skandha na 246 te devatah 247
sambuddha na ca devatamukhabhujaih sahkalpita 248 bodhaye 249 || (69)
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
yat 250 satkotibhir avrtam bhagavata tantram samajadikam
gitam 251 panditasastramanadalanam tat tarkagamyam kutah |
adarsapratisenikasamam idam traikalyasamvedakam 252
bhavabhavavitarkajalarahitam jnanam yad evadvayam || (70)
dvatrimsad 253 dhi 254 mahasukhe bhagavata sukrapravahah smrta 255
nadyah 256 kanthagatas tathaiva 257 hrdaye nabhau ca guhye ca yah 258 |
kimvahah 259 karapadasandhisu 260 tatha 261 ha[K K 5v]stahgulisandhisu 262
hevajre 'pi na ta jinena kathita 263 me vajragarbhasya 264 ca || (71)
yac carsam pravadanti bhiksukajanas tan magadham naparam
vakyam yat pitakatraye bhagavatas tat 265 sthavariye 266 mate |
rogo 267 'nyo 268 'pi [K N 5v] tadanyad 269 ausadham 270 idam
[rogaprahanaya 271 vai
arthadyam 272 saranam 273 caturvidham idam na vyanjanadyam muneh || (72)
ya devasuranagayaksarutakair 274 anyais 275 ca sandesiki 276
dharmanam 277 yugapac 278 ca vismayakari lokopamavarjita |
seyam samskrtalaksana bhagavato 'py evam mayetyadina
bha[N 4r]sarseti nigadyate budhajanair 279 ascaryam etan 280 na kim || (73)
sarvakaravarendrajalasadrso 281 mayopamo vyomagah
kayo yah sa nigadyate bhagavato 282 balair vitair 283 bodhaye |
dvatrimsadbhir 284 asitibhis 285 ca racitah 286 sallaksanair 287 vyanjanaih
skandhair dhatubhir 288 indriyais ca visayaih 289 sardham sthito
[mandale 290 || (74)
icchantiha jadah pratityajasamutpadam hi vettum 291 sada
nasotpadatithidhruvadiganitas 292 tantrantare desitah 293 |
kascid balataro dadhicchati 294 vina ksirena gobhir vina
ksiram gavyam api pragalbharahito 295 doso 'tra ko
tjnaninah 296 [K K 6 missing] || (75)
hevajrena hi cakrasamvaram idam jneyam catuhpithakam
hevajram khalu cakrasamvarapadair 297 jneyam 298 catuhpithakam |
hevajram laghucakrasamvaram idam jneyam catuhpithakair 299
nitarthah punar adibuddhavacanair jneyo 300 mahasa[K N 6r]mvaraih || (76)
evam 301 anyani tantrani anyais 302 tantrantaraih sada | 303
jneyany uddesanirdesais 304 tikabhir margakahksibhih 305 || (77)
iti satsahasrikayam 306 hevajratikayam 307 istadevatastavas 308 tantravatarah
prathamah paricchedah ||
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Notes to the Text
a Stanzas 1-3 are sdrdulavikridita. Stanza 1 occurs with the following dif-
ferences also at the beginning of the Adiyogandmasamddhi {Dhih 13: 14): pdda
a) lokdndm na [read lokdcdra'] vivarjitam; pdda b) evdparam; pdda c) ajatram
[read ajadam or ajaram ?]; pdda d) pranamdmi kdyam; and, as most kindly has
been pointed out to me by Iain Sinclair, at the beginning of the Hevajrasamddhi
(Dhih 21: 21) with the following variants: pdda b) evdparam; pdda c) ajaram;
pdda d) pranamdmi kdyam.
b Cf. Mahdsamvarodayatantrardja 8.9: yo grhl naisthiko bhoktd sevako
langall vanik \ saddharmavikrayl murkho na cakre ganandyakah || (p. 97). This
stanza is also quoted in the VP (vol. 2, p. 4) with attribution to the Adibuddha
and slight differences in pddas a and d.
c Verses 14cd-15ab seem to go back to a stanza quoted from the
Srimdydjdlamahdtantrardja by Candrakirti in his GSPU: dcdryasya gund
grdhyd dosas ca na kaddcana \ gunagrahanam [sic] siddhih sydd dosdndm
siddhihdnitah || (p. 216n_i 8 ). These verses are also quoted, without attribution
and in yet another slightly different form, in the VP: dcdryasya gund grdhyd
dosd naiva kaddcana \ gunagrahandd bhavet siddhir na siddhir dosavdkyatah
|| (vol. 2, p. 4 4 _ 5 ). Verse 14cd appears also with a few differences in the Cit-
tavisuddhiprakarana: gunds tasya param grdhyd dosd naiva kaddcana \\ (st.
129cd).
d Verses 15cd-16ab correspond to GP 7 (p. 17) with the only variant laghum
instead of lubdham. With some slight differences, this stanza occurs in the
Mahdsamvarodayatantrardja 8.8 (niskrpah krodhanah krurah stabdho lubdho
'py asamyatah \ svotkarsano na kartavyo data ca [?] buddhimdn sadd \\; p.
97), and is cited in the LTT (niskrpah krodhanah krurah stabdho lubdho '<py
a>samyatah \ svotkarsano na kartavyo ddtrd buddhasukhdrthind \\; p. 107) and
in the VP (vol. 2, p. 4).
e Stanzas 17 and 18 are quoted with a few differences in the margin of two
MSS of the LTT (p. 107, note).
f Stanza 19 corresponds exactly to GP 2. It is quoted in VP, vol. 2, p. 4 (cf. also
p. 5), and Kriydsamuccaya, fol. 2r 7 _8. Pdda c is similar to Yoginlsancdratantra
8.2c. The same concept can be found in Guhyasamdjatantra 17 (cf. also GSPU,
pp. 215-216, and JS 17, p. 151).
« Cf. GSPU (pp. 3, 10) and VP (vol. 1, p. 35).
h With slight variants, stanzas 29-30 correspond to GP 8-9: dhlro
vinlto matimdn ksamdvdn drjavo 'sathah \ mantratantraprayogajnah krpdluh
sdstrakovidah \\ dasatattvaparijndtd mandaldlekhyakarmavit \ mantravydkhyd-
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
krd acaryah prasannah syaj jitendriyah ||. St. 30 is also quoted in the VP (vol. 2,
p. 5).
1 Cf. Kriyasamuccaya, fol. 2r.
j Verses 40cd-41ab are quoted, with some differences in the sec-
ond half, in the AKU (p. 134: sarvakaravaropeta sunyata hetur aditah \\
analambanakrpa pascaj jagadarthakari phalam |) and, with attribution to the
Pancalaksahevajratantra, in the Sekoddesatippani (ad stt. 152-153ab; ed. Gnoli
1997b: 142: sarvakaravaropeta sunyata hetur aditah \\ analambakrpa pascaj
jagadarthakari phalam |).
k Here the text is paraphrasing Madhyamakakarika 13.8ab: sunyata
sarvadrstinam prokta nihsaranam jinaih .
1 Here the text is paraphrasing JS 5.3 (p. 115): hetuna sadrsam jnanam
phalam loke tu yujyate \ kodrava<n> na hijayante salayah kvacid eva tu ||.
m Cf. AK p. 37.
n This stanza is also quoted in the Sekanirdesapanjika (ad st. 19) with the
variant samastavedasiddhanam in pada a.
° This stanza is also quoted in the VP (vol. 1, p. 50; cf. also vol. 2, p. 214, and
vol. 3, p. 23) and in the PAJS (= VP vol. 3, p. 872-3). The first verse corresponds
to Mahamayatantra 1.5cd, the second verse (which is not clearly readable in
K N ) corresponds to HT 1.8.47cd. It is also quoted in the Sahajasiddhi 3.9cd.
According to a MS (entitled Kalparaja [!]) preserved in the IsIAO Library, Rome,
MS FGT V 1 263, fol. 31r 6 -7, it belongs to the Kalparaja: tatha ca srlkalparaje
— svayam harta svayam karta svayam raja svayam prabhuh. See also Newman
1987: 402, note 17.
p Stanzas 63cd-64 correspond to Bhagavadglta 4.7-8 (= Mahabharata
6.2.6.7-8).
q Stanzas 66-76 are sardulavikridita.
Variant Readings
1 namah srlhevajraya K N ] namah hemavajraya N (in both K N and N namah
is preceded by the siddha sign); unreadable in K K 2 nirdvandvam K K N
(not easily readable in N) ] nirdvadvam K N 3 cittam K K K N ] cittamm N
4 cittam acittacittam ajadam K K N (cittamm for cittam in N) ] unreadable
in K N 5 °asta° K K K N ^ C N ] °asta° K Nac 6 vadanany K K K N ^ C N ] danany
K NflC 7 °a vibhor K K N ] unreadable in K N 8 hasta° K K N ] unreadable in
K N 9 "sunyatas ca K K (even if not easily readable) N ] "sunyatas tu K N 10
pancasatksaravarnatattva' K K (ksara for aksara, metri causa; for a similar
instance see below, st. 60 and n. 194) ] pahcasataksaravarnnatattva' N (contra
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
metrum); pancdsy aksaravarnnabhabindu' K N (rnna is not clear); in T we read:
'gyur med Iha bcu rjod byed de nid n makute K K N ] mukute K N (te is not
clearly readable) (ep) n 'rdha° K K N ] unreadable in K N 13 °tmi° K K N ] °li°
K N 14 mudrdjinam K N N ] mudrd 'jinam K K (ep) 15 dvlpinah K K K N ] dipinah
N 16 lavavat K K N T (cha tsam Ita bur) ] canaram K N 17 satvdrthino K K N ]
atvdnvino K N 18 yogindm K K N ] 'nam is broken in K N 19 sdrdhasaptasate
K K N ] sdrdham astasate K N 20 hevajra' K K K N ] hemavajra' N °naisd K K
N ] unreadable in K N 21 ya K K N ] °d is broken in K N 22 sat° K K N ] sa° is
unclear in K N 23 tantraprakdsd' K K K N N^' ] prakdsd* N ac 24 ye K N ^ e K K
N ] yer K Nac 25 bhavisyanti K K K N ] bhasyanti N 26 desakdh K K N T (sto/z)
] dvesakdh K N 27 panca° K K N ] pa° is broken in K N 28 asanmdrga' N ]
dsanmdla' K N 29 gamanodyatdh K N ] gamanodyantdh N 30 ^ecirf K N N ]
*^i T (ies) 31 dhdrinah N ] dhdrina K N 32 site N ] sito K N 33 6/muJ N
T (sa la) ] tu vih K N 34 vanijah N ] vdnijdm K N 35 sudrdh krsikarmaratds
em.] sudrdm krsikarmmdratds K N ; sudrd krsikarmmaratds N 36 bhoginah
K N T ] 'bhogenah N 37 bhavisyanti K N ] bhasyanti N 38 °/zaii;a N ] °/zaite K N
39 gopayitvd K N ] gopiyitvd N 40 °sa/z dosaparitydga' N ] °sdnudosapariyoga°
K N 41 uarfaw^f K N " C N ] uadm£i K Nfle 42 naiua N ] «ai K N 43 Most likely
the m is a hiatus breaker. Read 'grahane, grahandd or "grahanend" ? Parfa a
is in any case metrically irregular 44 asiddhir em. ] asiddhi K N ; asiddhar
N 45 sisydndm K K N ] no equivalent in T 46 raa^ra K N T ] ndnu° N 47
svotkarsanam N T (ra/z bstod) ] sotkarsanca (nca is apparently erased) K N 48
ca N ] ku (apparently erased) K N 49 gurum K N ] guruh N 50 sisyam ca K N
GP ] sisyas caiva N (not easily readable) (contra metrum) 51 buddhimdn K N
] sa buddhimdn N (contra metrum) 52 ya/i N ] ya K N 53 ati° N T (si/z ^w) ]
atai K N 54 svotkarsana em. based on T (ra/z bstod) ] sotkarsana K N N 55
abhise' K N ] abhise' N 56 dasadig' N ] dasadika' K N "dhdtu" K N ] °£if°
N 57 triskdlam em. ] triskdlam K N N 58 e^ya vandyate K N Kriydsamuccaya
] etydbhivandyate N (see also below, st. 22d) 59 sandhydbhdsam ajdnanto
K N ] sandhydbhdsajdnanto N 60 mohitdh em. ] mohinah K N N 61 mastake
K N ] mastakdy N 62 abhisekdgralabdhah K N ] abhisekdgralayah N "
vajrdcdryas K N ] vajracdryas N 64 pancabhih K N ] pancdbhih N 65 trikdlam
etya vandyate K N T ] kdlam evdbhivandyate N 66 °mayds K N ] °mayas N 67
vandyate em. ] yo vandyate K N N (contra metrum; yo could be a later addition; it
is not represented in T) 68 sakrd em. ] sa£r K N ; sakrd N 69 uai N ] co K N (ep)
70 ca K N ] ya/z N 71 to^/ia conj. based on T (de 6zm) ] namah K N ; /za sa/i (= zza
sa/i ?) N 72 'bhdsam N ] 'bhdsam K N 73 ndnyad yathdrutam em. (read /za ca
yathdrutam ?) ] ndnyet tathdrutam K N ; ndnyat tathd 'ruta N 74 nltdrtham tat
tathd neyam conj. ] nltdrtham tan na tan naiyam K N ; nltdrthatva tan na neyan
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
N; in T we read: dgofis pas bsad dan dgons min dan \\ji bzin sgra dan ji bzin
min || de bzin hes don dran don te \\ rgyud ni mtha' drug mtshan hid mams || 75
'tra K K T {'dir) ] tu K N ; tan N 76 vyavaharena K K K N ] vyaharena N 77 te 'pi
K K ] te tu K N ; tana N 78 vinlto K K " e K N ] vineto K KflC ; vinlto N 79 'sathah K N ]
'sathah K K N 80 krpaluh em. based on T {shin rje Idan), cf. also GP ] krpanah
K Kpc ; krpana K KflC ; kr(2 unreadable aksaras)h K N ; krpala N (sic for krpaluh ?)
81 sastrakovidah K K N ] sa(3 unreadable aksaras)dah K N 82 'parijhata K K K N ]
'parijnata N 83 'karmavit NTGP] 'karmani K K K N 84 ^rrf K K K N ] °^rf N
85 prasannatma K K N ] prasanatma K N 86 u^ta° K K K N ] ukta° N 87 'cellako
K K K N ] cete^o N 88 tan na conj. ] tatra K K K N N T ('dir) 89 bhiksusamas em.
] bhiksusamas K K K N ; bhiksuh samas N 90 rfasa" K K ^ C K N N ] dasadi' K KflC
"'sifea" K K K N ] "siksa" N 91 yuktah K K N ] yw^tom K N 92 ^o.^r K N N ] kotr K K
°s^sa° K K K N ] "siksa" N 93 ^raya/i K K ] toya/i K N ; taya N 94 mwfa° K K " e K N
N ] mutala' K Kac "ta/z^re K K K N ] "tantram N 95 proktam K K K N ] pronto
N % bhiksor K K K N ] saksor N 97 vajradharam em. ] vajradharam K K K N ;
vajradharasyadam N 98 padam K K N T ] param K N " °aradhaka° K Npc K K
N ] dradhake K NflC sisyanam K K K N ] sisyanam N 10 ° tata/i K N N ] tratah
K K ll)1 kincin K K N ] £i/z K N 102 nairatmadhyesito N ] nairatmadhyasito K N ;
nairatmyadhyesito K K (ep) 103 a/zii° K K N ] anva° K N 104 siksapadapradanaya
K K N (siksapadapradanaya) T ] siksapadapradavayakam K N 105 idam K K N ]
jrfam ua K N 106 a6ra[;« K K N ] abravita K N 107 °sj^sa° K K K N ] °s^sa° N
"pada/zy K K N ] sacza K N 108 a<ia« K K N T ] padai K N 109 posadhadi' K N ^ e
K K N ] podhadi" K Nac 11() ^wsate" K K K N ] °kusala° N "parityagam K K N
1 "parityaga K N 1U dattua K N N T ] ^rtua K K (ep) 112 upasakam K K K N ]
upasakamN 113 Parfa c is hyperme trie 114 sravaneram K K K N ] sramaneram
N (ep, cf. BHSD s.v.); the word sravanera occurs, for instance, in the VP (vol.
2, p. 14623) 115 tatah K K N ] tata K N 116 kuryad dattva K N N ] broken in
K K 117 siksa° K K K N ] siksa' N 118 "siksa" K K K N ] °s^sa° N 119 bhiksum
K K N ] 6/i^sw K N 120 tato K K K N ] ntato N m svadharmatah K N N ] broken
in K K 122 Pada d is hypermetric 123 tato K N N ] broken in K K 124 jnatva
K N N ] srutva K K T (ep) 125 "phale K K T ('bras bur) ] "pade K N ; "pale N 126
trtlyakam K N N ] broken in K K 127 bauddhanam K K K N ] bauddhanam ca N
(contra metrum) 128 pancamam ca K K N ] pahcapahca K N 129 matam muneh
K K ] matam mune N; muner matam K N (ep) 13 ° 'varopeta K N N ] varopeta K K
131 sunyata K K ] nrnyata K N ; sunyate N 132 phalanx K K K N T ] palam N 133
ya/i K K K N N / ' e ] ya N ac 134 so 'nyesam K K N ] sondyesam K N 135 aisvarya
K K K N ] aisvarya' N 136 karano" K K K N ] °karuno° N 137 hetuphalarthina K K
T ] hertuphalanvinam K N ; hetuphalarthinam N 138 phalam K K N ] phala K N
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
139 nirhetuto K K ] nirhetor K N ; nirahetor N 14() bhavisyati K K K N ] bhasyanti
N 141 iha K K T ('di ru) ] iti K N N 142 sw/zyata K K K N ] sunyata N 143
prokta K K N ] proktan K N 144 nihsaranat N ] nihsaranat K K ; nisaranat K N
145 "dhanavasat K N ] "dhanavasat K K ; "dhanavasat N 146 bhavisyati K K K N ]
bhavisyanti N 147 niralambam K K N ] niralamba K N (the syllables "rala" are
not clearly readable) 148 karunatmaphalam K K T ] karunam ekaphalam K N ;
karunatmakaphalam N (contra metrum) 149 mahat K K N ] mahata K N 15 °
karuna trividha K K T ] jagadarthakarl K N (cf. st. 48d); karuna tu (°atra ? not
easily readable) trividha N 151 kincit K K N ] kihcita K N 152 'avalambinl K K
N ] dvalambanl K N 153 dasabhumau K K N T ] ddasajamo K N 154 niralamba
K K N ] the syllable °/n6a is unreadable in K N 155 jagadarthakarl K N (/'a is
unreadable) K K T ]jagakarT N 156 In K N stanzas 47-48 are written inside verse
53 pada d (see below) 157 phalanx K K N ] phalana K N l5i jay ante K K ] yayente
K N ; jayate N 159 madhye 'vasane K N (madhyevasane) N ] madhyavasane K K
160 ca K K K N ] dees* in N 161 mama K N N ] mune/i K K T (^/m6 pa) (ep) 162
savikalpad dhetoh K K ] vikalpakad dhetoh N; vikalpahetoh K N 163 savikalpam
K K ] savikalpa' K N ; sarvvakalpam N 164 'bauddhanam K K N ] baudhanam
K N 165 kalpatah K K N T ] akalpatah K N (ccm£ra metrum) 166 sunyata' K K K N
N ] *asunyata° l*na sunyata' T 167 salibljasya vapanam K K ] salidhanyasya
vapanam N (ep); salidhanasavopanam K N 168 «a suddham conj. based on T
(ma rfag) and the context ] nasuddham K K K N N 169 manusyam karma" K K
N T ] paramarthacesma' (or °vesma° I'dhesma") K N 17 ° asuddham K K (even if
not clearly readable) N T ] susuddham K N 171 In K N stt. 47-48 are written
after the words janma subha 172 manusya' K Kpc K N N ] manusya' K Kac 173
'nalambini K K K N ] 'nalambani N 174 chunya' em. ] sunya° K K K N ; sunya° N
175 6/ia[;e^ K K N ] 6/iauata K N 176 sunyata" K K K N ] sunyata" N 177 tv K K ] dees^
in K N and N 178 anavalambakrpa" K K ] analambakrpa" K N ; analambakrpa"
N (this reading could be admitted if we retain the ta of K K , but with the hiatus
"vrksat tu analamba") m cintitam K K K N ] cittita N 18 ° sarvasattvanam K K
N T ] sarvabuddhanam K N 181 "mantradyam K K N T ] "mattadyam K N 182
desitam K K T ] darsitam K N N (ep) 183 gambhlrodaradharmesu K K K N N ] no
equivalent in T 184 "sattvatvam K K N ] "sattvatvamm K N 185 bhiksur K K K N ]
6/ii N 186 "traya" em. (probably K K , but the MS is partially broken) ] "tritaya"
K N (contra metrum); "taya" (read £raya ?) N "parijnata K K K N ] "parijnata
N 187 krtanam K K K N N ] &r£am N 188 isvaradibhih K K K N ] isvaravadibhih
N (contra metrum) 189 bauddhanam K K N ] baudhanan K N 190 visesah K Kpc
K N ] visesam K KflC ; visesah N 191 sunyatam K K K N ] sunyatam N 192 sa K K
N ] «a sa K N 193 sisyan K N ] sirsyan K K ; sisyan N 194 patayet khilan K K N
(sic me£ri causa for patayed akhilan) ] patayetad akhilan K N ; *patayed akhilan
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
T 195 kartrd conj. ] karttd K K K N N 1% vina ndsti K K N ] vindsti K N 197
mahdmdyd K K K N ] mahdmahdmdyd N 198 bhuta' K K N ] bhrta' K N "kdrinl
K K N ] 'kdriini K N 199 svayam K K " C K N N ] svasvayam K Kac 2()0 ra/a K K T ]
unreadable in K N ; vajrd N 2()1 prabhuh K K ] unreadable in K N ;prabhu N 202
isvarasya K K K N ] Tsvarasya N 2()3 yatfza K K ] ta£/za K N N; T has de Itar 204
isvaro K K ] isvard K N ; isvaro N 205 sivasiddhdnte K K ] saivasiddhdntair N;
sivisiddhdntai K N 206 gitddharme K K T ] nitddharme K N ; gitddharmo N 207
"damakah K K " e K N N ] "damaka K KflC 208 pdlakah K K N ] patoJea K N 209
gldnir ~K K ] gldni K N ; ca gldnir N 210 bhdrata K N ] bhdratah K K N 211 srjdmy
K K N T ] pujdmy K N 212 sddhundm K K K N ] sddhund N 213 raksandrthdya
K K K N ] raksandya N (contra metrum) 214 ca K K N ] to K N 215 duskrtdm K N ]
duhkrtdm K K ; duskrtdn N 216 "drthdya K K N ] °drthasa K N 217 yu^e K K K N T ]
dhund N (= 'dhund) 218 sarvdm K K ] sarvam K N ; sarva N 219 desandm K K K N
] 'desand N 22 ° codayet K K K N ] codayan N 221 'mahitam K K N T (mchodpa)
] "sahitam K N 222 °kharddhi° K K N T (m/e/m' to raziz fcfcrwJ) ] 'khardda K N 223
'opamam K K K N ] 'opama N 224 °gwpto° K N '' C K K N ] °gw° K Nfle 225 nltdrtham
K K N ] /zfto/zwm K N 226 °a^ra K N N T ('rfi ra) ] °a^ K K 227 "visphuteyam K K
N (in both MSS 'visphuteyam) ] dhustineyam K N ; * visphuteyam T (gsa£ 6a ga«)
228 para K K K N ] para N 229 ekasataih K K T ] tvakasrte K N ; esato N 230
sahasragunitair K K K N ] rfees^ in N 231 ua K K K N N ] not represented in T 232
yas iSo" K N N T (ga/z ;% 'greJ pa) ] yaslkd' K K °ra/uto K N ] °ra/ii to K K N 233
"/ztoaye K K N T ] °/zi£ya K N 234 ^aptom K K K N ] gwpto; N 235 desaye* K K K N
] desaye* N 236 akhilam K K N ] aMda° K N 237 tantram K K K N ] to/ztoa N; T
seems to translate a reading akhile tantre (mtha' dag rgyud du) 238 neydrtham
K K K N ] neydrtha N 239 prakatitam K K K N ] prakatita N 24() naitadrutam
tadrutam K K ] itadrutam K N (contra metrum); naitadrutam N (contra metrum)
241 nltdrtham K N N ] nitartham K K 242 neyam K K N ] neya° K N 243 artham K K
N ] srtvam K N 244 Read akhile tantre or akhilam tantram (cf. st. 68c) ? 245
vidddayo K K N ] vitddayo K N 246 «a K K " C K N N ] to/ze K KflC 247 deuato/i K K
N ] devatd K N 248 sankalpitd K K ] samkalpitau K N ; sakalpitd N 249 bodhaye
K K N ] 6od/ieye K N 250 ya^ K K K N ] yato N 251 gjtam K K N T fesw/zs pa) ]
6/n-tam K N 252 ^afya° K K K N ] "kdla" N 253 "trimsad K K K N ] "trimsad N
254 dvdtrimsad dhi K K N ] dvdtrisac ca K N 255 smrtd K K K N ] smrtdh N (no
application of sandhi) 256 nddyah K K N ] nddyah K N 257 tathaiva K K K N ]
tathai N 258 ya/i K K K N ] ya N 259 kimvdhdh N ] kimvdhamh K N ; kimvdhd
K K 26 ° 'sandhisu K K K N ] 'sandhisu N 261 ta^a K K N ] gato K N T (so/z pa)
(ep) 262 'sandhisu K K ^ C K N N ] 'samandhisu K Kac 263 ^a^fte K K ] ^adfto K N
N (ep) 264 vajragarbhasya K K K N T ] vajrasya N (contra metrum) 265 to^ K K T
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
] to to K N ; tatra N 266 sthavanye K K N ] sthavantya K N 267 rogo K K N T ] rona
K N 268 , nyo K K ft ] nye K N 269 tarf . R K R N ftpc ] ta „ yarf o fta C 270 au?a dham
K K T (sman) ] osadham K N N 271 prahanaya K N ^' K K N ] prahonaya K Nac
272 arthadyam K N T ] athadyam K K ; arthddya N 273 saranam K K N ] saranam
K N 274 'rutakair K K K N N pe ] "garutairutakair N fle 275 a/zyais K K N ] arcyai
K N 27f) sandesiki K K N ] samdesaki K N 277 dharmanam K K N T (c/ios mams)
] sarddharmmam K N 278 yugapac K K N ] yugavac K N 279 budhajanair ~K Kpc
K N NT (s^ye 60 mMas pa) ] budhajinair K Kac 28 ° eto/z K K N ] ito/z K N 281
°uare° K K T (mchog Idan) ] °tore° K N ; "rare" N 282 bhagavato K K K N ] bhagato
N 283 into^r K K N ] uitoi K N 284 "trimsadbhir K N N ] 'trimsadbhir K K 285
as^i° K K K N ] asiti" N 286 radto/z K K K N ] racitam N 287 sat K K K N ] ya^ N
288 dhatubhir K K N T (khams) ] jnatubhir K N 289 visayaih K K K N ] visayai N
290 mandate K N " e K K N ] mate K Nae 291 uetttim KK ] vetum/vettam K N N 292
nasotpada' K K ] nasyotpada' K N N °^/u° K N N ] °tithT° K K 293 desitah K K T
] darsitah K N (ep); desita N 294 balataro dadhlcchati K K K N ] balatatadhicchati
N 295 pragalbharahito K K ] pragakarahito K N ; pragallarahito N 2% jhaninah
conj. ] 'jhaninah K K K N N T 297 °padair K N N^ ] 'gapadair N ac 29& jheyam
em. (cf. T ses par 6ya) Ij/zeya K N ; ei;am N 2 " This pada is not translated in T
300 jheyo K N ]jheyam N 3()1 ei;a/n N ] evamm K N 302 anyais em. ] tod anais
K N ; anyai N 303 In T we read: de to sogs pa'i rgyud mams ni \\ rgyud gzan
mams kyis Hag tu ni \\ 304 uddesa' em. ] udesa° K N ; uddesa' N <> 'nirdesais
K N ] 'nirdesais N 305 tlkabhir marga° N T ] tlkarthena K N kahksibhih N
] kamksubhih K N 306 'sahasrikayam N ] sahasrikam K N 307 tlkayam N ]
tikayamm K Npc ; tikamyamm K Nae 308 stavas N ] °stava° K N (ep)
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
Translation
Introduction
Honour to glorious Hevajra!
1-6. After honouring the deathless (amrta) Essential Body of [all] the Bud-
dhas, which is beyond worldly behaviour, consists of the Victorious, [and] is al-
ways elevated [above the horizon], [all] pervading, devoid of [every manifesta-
tion of] duality, immaculate, free from sensorial pleasure, 1 omniscient, [the word]
evam, supreme, pacified, the mind — i.e., the mind that is non-mind — , 2 sentient
and endowed with all the senses in every direction; 3 after honouring He whose
faces, born of the eight destroyed qualities, 4 are the eight final emancipations of
the Lord, 5 whose hands are the sixteen [kinds of] emptiness, whose skulls are the
compassions, 6 on whose shoulders is a garland of heads made of the fifty beads
corresponding to the true reality of the phonemes, 7 on whose diadem is Aksobhya
and a vajra encircled with a half-moon, 8 whose necklace is made of skulls, whose
beautiful feet — the cause of final emancipation, i.e., the benevolence (maitri),
etc. — are treading on the Maras along with the group of the moral and intellec-
tual [faults], who embraces his mudra, 9 who wears a tiger-skin, whose ornament
is the hindrances (avarana) of the Maras, and so forth, [which he has only in
a very small quantity] like a drop, in as much as he is wishing for [the welfare
of] beings, 10 being impelled by Hevajra, 11 I — the glorious Vajragarbha, the Lord
of the ten Stages, who wishes to impart knowledge (bodhaye) 12 and desires the
welfare of all beings — am writing a commentary that explains the secrets of the
[Hevajra]tantra, in order for the yogins to attain the [true] path. Since this short
tantra of 750 [stanzas], endowed with many adamantine words {vajrapada), n
has been taken from a great tantra of five laksas, 14 this [commentary], called
Satsahasrika, follows the root -tantra (mulatantra) in order to elucidate on the
[short] tantra.
Criticism of Bad Teachers
7. In this age of the five decays, there will be masters who teach an [erro-
neous] yoga practice [and] who promote a wrong path. 15
8. Using corrupt reasoning (durnaya), they will explain the brief tantras
without a commentary. Desiring the wealth and wives of others, they will unre-
lentingly move towards hell.
9. Some [other masters] will comment on [tantras] without the five kinds of
super-knowledge, 16 etc. They will belittle the yoga practice through their pride
in speculative [logical] treatises.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
10—11. "We are the Vajra-holders since we have attained Buddhahood, the
state of Vajrasattva, with effort, through the initiations", some will say to other
men. "All monks who observe moral precepts should not be honoured. [Still more
so] we who wear white clothes, 17 who are the Vajra-holders in person, must be
honoured!".
12-13ab. Those servants, traders, sudras and farmers who sell the good law
and, foolish [as they are], enjoy non-enjoyable things, will become masters, will
be corporeal manifestations of Mara for [their] disciples.
13cd-14ab. Concealing the wrong actions (dosa) that they have performed in
a false clothing of yogic behaviour, in order to cause [their students] to disregard
[their] defects (dosa), l& they [will] say:
14cd-15ab. "Never should the master's defects, but only his qualities, be
perceived. 19 Disciples do not attain perfection if they perceive the [master's] de-
fects. There is no doubt concerning this".
15cd-16. [These bad teachers] will never impart the following sentence to
their disciples: "A wise person should not accept as [his] master or disciple some-
one who is devoid of compassion, wrathful, pitiless, proud, covetous, unbridled or
self-admiring".
17-18. [Commentary on the above sentence:] He who is "devoid of compas-
sion" is [for instance] a farmer; he who is "wrathful" is he who exploits the weak
points [of others] (marmabhedaka); he who is "pitiless" is a man hostile towards
monks; he who is "proud" is conceited with bad knowledge; he who is "covetous"
is he who desires forbidden things; he is "unbridled" due to a great use of intoxi-
cating drinks; he who is called here "self-admiring" is the detractor of those who
are virtuous.
The True Master
19. "The adamantine teacher, since he has received the highest of initiations,
is honoured three times a day (triskalam) 20 by the Tathagatas that reside in [all]
the worlds of the ten directions, after having reached him."
20. Those who without knowing the intentional language (sandhyabhasa) 21
[and being] confused by the literal meaning (ndmamdtra) [of the texts] attack
the Jinendras, will go to the Raurava [hell].
21. [Commentary on st. 19 according to the surface meaning:] 22 He who has
been consecrated on the head by Vajrasattva at the root of the bodhi-tree (bo-
dhimula) 23 is he "who has received the highest of initiations", "the adamantine
teacher", the Tathagata.
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
22. The "worlds" are the bodies of the Bodhisattvas "of the ten directions".
He "is honoured three times a day" by the five aggregates (skandha) "that reside"
here [in these bodies], "after having reached him".
23. [Or, according to the deep meaning:] The "worlds" are the [Bod-
hisattvas'] crowns fashioned from many jewels. Among the yogins, the
"adamantine teacher" is he who "is honoured" by the Buddhas "that reside" here
[in these crowns]. 24
24. Just as Vairocana, meant as a pledge (samaya), corresponds to excre-
ment (sakrt), Aksobhya to urine 25 and Amitabha to semen, 26 the teacher corre-
sponds to the Vajra-holder.
25. In the same way as the teacher gives [to the disciple] the mudras of the
excrements, urine and semen, so the Vajra-holder gives [him] the perfections of
body, speech and mind.
26. For disciples and yogins, the first and subsequent initiations, both based
on the relative and absolute truths, are performed in the mandala and in the
bodhimula respectively.
27. The Tantra is characterized here by six standpoints (satkoti): the inten-
tional language (sandhyabhasa), the non-intentional language (yathasandhya),
the literal or standard language (yatharuta), that which is non-literal [or coined]
(naruta), the deep meaning (nitartha) and the surface meaning (neyartha). 27
28. Those qualities that are shown here, according to ordinary life, as belong-
ing to the teacher, are also the Vajrasattva's qualities, [in this case] characterized
by the six kinds of super-knowledge, etc.
29-30. "The [true] master is resolute, well-behaved, wise, patient, honest,
sincere, and versed in the use of the mantras and of the Tantras; compassion-
ate; skilled in sacred works; learned in the ten realities; 28 proficient in mandala
painting; an expounder of the mantras; gracious-minded [and] master of his
senses. y
The Supremacy of the Monks
31. [Only] a monk, who is endowed with the above-mentioned qualities, can
become the Vajra-holder, not a novice [and not] a layman. Therefore, ten of these
two [namely, novices and laymen] cannot be compared to a single monk. 30
32. The [novice] must observe ten moral precepts (siksapada), 31 the [layman]
five moral precepts, the [monk] ten million moral precepts (kotisiksa). The three
are traditionally believed to be different to each other.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
33. According to the root-tantra, 32 the state of Vajra-holder is [the preroga-
tive] of the monk. Therefore, some [stanzas from this text] are quoted below for
[the benefit of] those disciples who adore the master.
Quotation from the Pancalaksahevajra
34. "The Vajra-holder, when asked by Nairatma, spoke the following words
in order to impart the moral precepts, according to the rules and in the correct
order.
35-36. "First, after giving the five moral precepts, the Vajra-holder [the
master] will create the lay follower (updsaka) who has refused the ten malicious
[actions] and who must observe the posadha, and so forth. Then, after giving the
ten moral precepts, he will create the novice, and, after giving ten million moral
precepts, he will create the monk.
37-38. "After becoming familiar with the rules of conduct (pratimoksa),
the thought of the Vaibhasikas, the Sutranta and the Vijnanavada, according
to their principles (svadharmatah), and after learning the Madhyamaka with
the Prajnaparamita, [and] all the other tantras, the Hevajraitantra] must be
learned. 33
39-40ab. "He who has mastered the three vehicles enjoys the fruits of the
One Vehicle (ekayana). [These vehicles are] the Sravaka, the Pratyeka and the
Mahayana. 34 Neither a fourth ["Vehicle" (ydna)] nor a fifth [system of thought
(mata)] of the Sage (muni) exists for Buddhists.
40cd-41ab. "First, there is emptiness, which is endowed with all excellent
forms [and which is] the cause; second, due to the vow (pranidhana), 35 there
is compassion, which accomplishes the welfare of the world [and which is] the
effect. 36
41cd-42. "He who, after achieving his own welfare brings welfare to others,
is a sage. How can he who is suffering and miserable, [even if] intent on helping
[other] beings, give pleasure, power and prosperity to others?
43. "He who desires [to obtain] an effect must first realize directly its cause.
The effect, indeed, cannot take place before, since it would then be causeless. 37
44. "The existence of a second [superior] vehicle, different from the
Mahayana, is stated here [simply] in order to make to desist those who have lost
[the virtues, starting with] giving (ddna), moral sensitivity, etc., but does not
reflect the true reality.
45ab. "T say that emptiness is the abandonment (nihsarana) of all
dharmas'.
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
45cd-46. "Therefore, by virtue of [this] abandonment, which is the [empti-
ness as a] cause, [and] then by virtue of the vow, there will be the great fruit
of compassion, which is baseless. Compassion is said to be threefold: [based in]
beings (sattva), [based in] dharmas and baseless {niralamba)?*
47. "[The compassion that] is based in beings and dharmas produces its
benefit partially and on a limited sphere. It is the prerogative of the Siddhas
[and] the Bodhisattvas, who reside [just] in the tenth Earth.
48. "It is said to be baseless [the compassion that] produces a benefit for the
[entire] world. It is the prerogative of the Buddhas (sugata) who have arrested
the twelve limbs [of the dependent origination (pratityasamutpada)] and have
crossed all the Earths.
49. "Every cause produces a specific effect and no other. Grains of rice never
come from the corn (kodrava). 39
50ab. "A seed produces its own tree and a tree its own fruit.
50cd. " 'My words are beneficial in the beginning, in the middle and in the
end'. 40
51. "In the beginning, a cause endowed with conceptual constructions pro-
duces an effect endowed with conceptual constructions. And [thus, if the empti-
ness is meditated upon in a conceptual way] the effect of the emptiness will man-
ifest for all Buddhists, according to the conceptual constructions, in the end.
52. "If, in the beginning, the [grains of] corn are sowed to purify a field; then,
once the field is purified, the seeds of rice are sown.
53. "It is said that human birth is not a pure field; it springs from the earth
of actions (karman). Birth in the six forms of existence (sadgati) is impure; it
arises from pure and impure fruit.
54. "Baseless compassion can [only] arise after a human birth has become a
pure field. The seed [of compassion] has been sown. From this, the great tree of
emptiness springs. 41
55. "The fruit of baseless compassion, which is desired for all beings, springs
from the wishing tree of emptiness. There is no doubt about this.
56. "O beloved [Nairatma], I have imparted mudras, mandalas, mantras
and many other things to help those who are not suitable for the deep and noble
dharmas.
57. "Future teachers, who are incarnations of Mara, will teach that Bud-
dhahood, i.e., the state of Vajra-holder, can be attained [simply] through mudras,
mandalas, mantras and other [such] things.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
58. "Therefore, [only] the monk who teaches the Mahayana, who has pro-
found knowledge of the three vehicles and understands the constitutive elements
of the doctrine (dharmasangraha), is traditionally known as the Vajra-holder."
Criticism of Bad Teachings. The Need for Good Commentaries
59-60ab. The difference between the Buddhist tantras and mantras and
those of the Vedas, the Siddhanta and the Yoga, promulgated by the Lord and
others is concerning emptiness. The one who does not see [this difference], being
confused, brings about the fall of the defective disciples. 42
60cd. [He says:] An action does not exist without someone who acts, nor
the result without the action.'
61-62. Mahamaya is very fierce; she destroys [all] beings. She herself
creates, she herself destroys; she herself is king, she herself is overlord,' exactly
as the maya of Isvara. Also Isvara in the Sivasiddhanta, in the doctrine of the
Gita, is called by the heretics janardana 43 ('tormentor of men'), durdantadamaka
('tamer of those who are untamable') and sadhupalaka ('protector of the virtu-
ous'):
63-64. O Arjuna, I create [a part of] myself whenever justice grows weak
and injustice grows strong in this [world]. In each age, I manifest myself in order
to protect the virtuous, to destroy criminals and to consolidate justice.' 44
65. Thus, Hevajra, perfectly aware of all [these] bad teachings of the Law,
urged me to compose a commentary.
66. After honouring the most eminent of the Bodies [of the Buddha] that
— Essential (svabhavika) and pure — is celebrated by the three worlds; after hon-
ouring [the Body of] the Doctrine, which is beyond feelings of pleasure and pain;
after honouring [the Body of] Enjoyment, which is the instructor; 45 and after
honouring the Body of Transformation, which is accompanied by manifold mirac-
ulous appearances in the ether (kharddhi) [and which is] similar to magic and
Indra's net, I shall partly (alpatah) reveal the hidden words of the short tantra
according to their deep meaning (nitartha).
67. The teaching (desana) of the Victorious One, which in ancient times
the Buddhas taught with 500,000 stanzas in the collection of the Aditantra 46
and with 100,000 stanzas in the Laksabhidhana, 41 is [condensed] here, in this
short [tantra, the] Hevajra. It remains obscure to men. [Therefore] the mean-
ing [of the short tantras] and also [what the Buddhas have expounded] in the
other collection of the Royal Tantras (tantraraja), becomes clear [only] from the
commentaries.
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
68ab. He who tries to reveal, without a commentary, the obscure [meaning
of a] word in a short tantra, resembles a blind man who attempts to follow the
trail of a snake that has long disappeared into the water. 48
68cd-69ab. In every tantra, the Victors have taught the deep meaning and
not [simply] the surface meaning. If, in order to bestow knowledge, a commen-
tary explains [only] the surface meaning, the definitive one would be useless.
In every tantra, the Victors have taught the intentional language and the non-
intentional language, the literal or standard language and that which is non-
literal [or coined], the deep meaning and the surface meaning. 49
69cd. That is why, [according to the intentional language,] in this tantra
(atra) the aggregates correspond to excrements, etc. [In reality] the aggregates,
which are impure, are not divinities, i.e., Perfect Buddhas. Nor, once visualized
(sankalpita) with mouths and arms of the divinities, can the latter help to acquire
knowledge. 50
70ab. The Blessed One has veiled the tantras, beginning with the Samdja,
by means of six standpoints (koti). How could these recited [tantras] that van-
quish the pride of the panditas and [their] works be understood through [hypo-
thetical] speculation?
70cd. This [true] knowledge [which is expounded in them] is similar to a
magical image in a mirror; it has a clear knowledge of the past, present and
future; it is devoid of the various speculations regarding being and non-being; it
is devoid of duality.
71. The Blessed One stated that the thirty- two channels (nadi) which are
in the mahasukha[cakra], 51 and likewise those in the throat, in the heart, navel
and secret parts, carry the semen. Which [channels] are bearing what in the
joints of the hands and feet, and likewise in the joints of the arms and fingers
the Victor did not tell me, Vajragarbha, even in the Hevajraitantra].
72. The [language] of the Sage (arsa) that the monks speak is nothing but
the Magadha. The words of the Blessed One in the three baskets are found in
the doctrine of the Elders. Disease is one thing; medicine[, which is used] in
order to eliminate disease, is other than that. 52 The fourfold refuge begins with
the spirit (artha) [of the words] of the Sage, and not with [their] literal meaning
(vyanjana). 53
73. The wise ones say that the venerable speech of the Blessed One,
which contemporaneously teaches the dharmas through the languages of Gods,
Demons, Nagas and Yaksas and through other [languages], and is a source of
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
wonder that defies worldly comparison, can also be expressed in Sanskrit, with
words such as evam may a. Is this not a wonder?
74. The Body [of Transformation] of the Blessed One, which, similar to In-
dra's net, [manifests itself] in all excellent forms, is comparable to magic and
ethereal; it is named by those who are young and spiritually immature to be-
stow knowledge. This Body, distinguished by [its] thirty-two characteristics and
eighty distinctive signs, exists in the mandala through the aggregates, elements,
senses and sense-objects.
75. In this [world], those who are foolish calculate 54 always the decay, birth,
lunar days (tithi), fixed points (dhruva), 55 etc., which are taught in other tantras,
in order to know the dependent origination. He who is extremely ignorant and
spineless (pragalbharahita) desires coagulated milk without milk, and cow's
milk without cows. In this case, where is the blame (dosa) of the wise man
(jfianin)?
76. The Cakrasamvara [and] the Catuhplthaka must be understood through
the Hevajra. The Hevajra [and] the Catuhplthaka must be understood through
the words of the Cakrasamvara. The Hevajra [and] the short Cakrasamvara
must be understood through [the words of] the Catuhplthaka. But the deep
meaning [of all these tantras] must be understood through the words of the
Adibuddha, which contain great secrets.
77. Hence, those who desire [true] path must always understand tantras
through other tantras, summaries (uddesa), teachings (nirdesa) and commen-
taries.
Thus is the introduction to the tantra, the Laud of the Chosen Deity. It is
the first section of the Satsahasrika, a commentary on the Hevajraitantra].
Notes to the Translation
1 I.e., it is a pleasure that transcends sensorial faculties. The concept occurs
for instance in JS 7 and PAJS (Gnoli 1997a: 42-45).
2 This expression comes from the Prajnaparamita literature; see, e.g.,
Astasahasrikaprajnaparamita, ed. p. 3; Abhisamayalamkaraloka, ed. p.
39: "this mind exists, [but] this mind is non-mind (asti tac cittam yac cit-
tam acittam)". It occurs often in Kalacakra texts; see, e.g., VP (vol. 1, p.
4324-29): iha punah sunyatakarunatmakasya bimbasya visuddhacittasya
kumarikapratisenopamasya na rupalaksanam paramanor abhavan narupa-
laksanam sunye vidyamanatvat \ atah samvrtih sunyatarupinl sunyata
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
samvrtirupinl < \ > lokopamdm atikrantatvdd asti tac cittam yac cittam
acittam sdsvatocchedadharmalaksandpagatam sunyatdkarunabhinnam
iti | paramdrthasatyata ubhayacittayor vaidharmydd astindstivyatikranto
bhdvdbhdvaksayo vajrayogo 'dvaya iti tathdgatavacanam niranvayatvdt | (cf.
transl. by Newman 1987: 371-372). Cf. also VP vol. 1, p. 23i 2 -i 6 ; PAJS (VP vol.
3, p. 77 28 ).
3 See Manjusrlndmasahgiti 8.21cd-23ab, which is also quoted in
Satsdhasrikd, Section Two.
4 Most probably, animd, etc. Cf. Satsdhasrikd, Section Five, st. 110. Cf.
Mahdvyutpatti 125.
5 Cf. VP vol. 3, p. 149.
6 On the sixteen kinds of emptiness and compassion, see HT 1.9.15 (cf. also
Snellgrove 1959, vol. I, p. 80, note 1); Yogaratnamdld (MS fol. 36); VP (vol. 1, p.
21, transl. by Newman 1987: 285 ff; cf. VP vol. 2, p. 8).
7 See Dawa-Samdup 1919: 98, note 4.
8 Or "a half moon and a vajra". On the description of Hevajra, see Tucci
1936: 25. See also Murthy 1998.
9 Cf. HT 2.6.4.
10 Since the Bodhisattvas desire to remain in the world in order to help all
beings, the obstacles are still present in them to a small degree. This concept is
also expressed in the PAJS p. 931-933 (Gnoli 1997a: 63) and in another stanza
of the Hevajratantrapinddrthatikd (8.69cd-70ab), which is also quoted in the AK
(p. 26). Cf. AKU p. 141.
11 See below, st. 65cd.
12 The word bodhaye appears also below, stt. 68d, 69d, 74b. In st. 74b (just
as in HT 1.9.14d; cf. Farrow and Mennon 1992: 126), it seems to possess both a
causative and final meaning: "in order to awaken".
13 In this context, the word vajrapada means "difficult or obscure words".
As a technical term the compound vajrapada appears for the first time in the
Ratnagotravibhdga 1.1: buddhas ca dharmas ca ganas ca dhdtur bodhir gunah
karma ca bauddham antyam \ krtsnasya sdstrasya sarlram etat samdsato vajra-
paddni sapta ||; see Takasaki 1966: 141-142. We might also interpret the locative
alpatantre (5b) as depending on tikd (3d) and translate the sentence as follows:
"I [...] write a commentary that explains the secrets of the [Hevajra]tantra, in or-
der for the yogins to attain the [true] path, [a commentary] on this short tantra
of 750 [stanzas] that is endowed with many adamantine words (vajrapada) [and]
that has been taken from a great tantra of five laksas. This [commentary], called
Satsdhasrikd, follows the root -tantra (mulatantra) in order to elucidate on the
[short] tantra."
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
14 Laksa means here 100,000 stanzas, i.e., the measure of 100,000 stanzas.
See also below, st. 67.
15 In the LTT we read: iha pahcakasayakale jambudvipaka manusya
visesenaryavisaye alpayuso 'Ipaprajna bhavisyanti \ ye vajracaryas te mulapatti-
gamino bhavisyanti \ bhiksavo dasakusalakarino bhavisyanti \ grhastha
ratnatrayadravyopabhogino bhavisyanti \ pandita asrutatantravyakhyataro
bhavisyanti panditabhimanena tantre panjikatikakara bhavisyanti \ tantrartham
viparltam desayitva narakagamino bhavisyanti \ ye murkha bauddhas
te sraddhajadatvena grhasthacaryesu paryupasanam karisyanti \ sar-
vajhadhvajadharakan dusayisyanti (pp. 51-52). Cf. also Sanderson 1994:
note 5. Stanzas 7-13 have also been translated from the Tibetan by Newman
(1987: 409-410).
16 That is, without divyacaksus, divyasrotra, paracittajnana, purvanivasanu-
smrti and rddhi.
17 Cf. Sferra 2005: 276 and note.
18 In other words, they impart teachings in order to eliminate defects, while
actually concealing their defects.
19 On this theme, cf. Cittavisuddhiprakarana 129, GSPU p. 216; see also
Abhinavagupta, Tantraloka 23.83-87ab.
20 I.e., at dawn, noon and evening (cf. VP vol. 2, p. 5).
21 On intentional language (sandhabhasa), see Bhattacharya 1928; Elder
1976; Bharati 1969: 164-84; Bagchi 1939: 27-33; Newman 1987: 38-42; Seyfort
Ruegg 1989: 295-328; Kvterne 1977: 37 ff. Cf. also Lamotte 1993 2 : 20.
22 The twofold interpretation of st. 19 according to nltartha and neyartha
occurs also in VP vol. 2, p. 5.
23 Cf. VP vol. 2, p. 5. Bodhimule corresponds here to bodhivrksamule . The
general meaning is that the practitioner has received the initiation as if he were
at the root of the bodhi-tree as Siddhartha Gotama himself; he is one who re-
ceives the initiation without the monastic ordination (cf. also Milindapanha p.
76). The compound bodhimule recurs several times also in the Pali Canon.
24 The five Buddhas who are in the crown are inclined towards Vajrasattva.
25 Cf. CMT (George 1974: 68), JS 2.10-11.
26 Cf. PAJS (Gnoli 1997a: 22).
27 Cf. below, stt. 68cd-69ab. On the six standpoints, see Steinkellner 1978.
28 On the ten tattvas, cf. Lessing and Wayman 1978: 276-277; cf. VP vol. 2,
pp. 4, 5, 146.
29 Cf. Laghukalacakratantra 3.2.
30 In the LTT we read: acaryo 'pi mantranaye trividhah \ grhasthas
cellako bhiksur adhamo madhyama uttamah [ ] tatha bhiksur abhisiktah
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The Laud of the Chosen Deity
pradhdndcdryo bhavati cellako madhyamdcdryo bhavati grhastho 'dhamdcdryo
bhavati \ atas traydndm prag bhiksuh pascdd vajradharah krto ganacakre
pratisthddau ganandyakah \ tasydbhdve cellakas tasydpy abhdve grhasthah \
(pp. 102-103); see also VP (vol. 2, pp. 146-147), CMT (ed. p. 46) and JS 14.
31 For various references, see BHSD, p. 527.
32 I.e, the Pancalaksahevajratantra.
33 Cf. Newman 1992.
34 This is a reference to the famous doctrine of the ekaydna that is one of the
most crucial ones of the Saddharmapundarlkasutra. Cf. also Vimalakirtinirdesa
p. 215, and Ratndvali 4.88.
35 The reference here is probably to the pranidhdnacitta or pranidhicitta of
the bodhicitta ritual. See Wangchuk 2007. On the term pranidhdna, see also
BHSDs.r
36 See below, st. 45cd.
37 The translation of this stanza is not literal.
38 In the VP the threefold karund is connected with the 15 tithis (vol. 1, p. 21):
evam karund tridhd — sattvdvalambini dharmdvalambini anavalambini ceti \
tatra sattvdvalambini suklapratipadddydh panca tithayah \ dharmdvalambini
sasthyddydh panca tithayah \ anavalambini ekddasyddydh panca tithayah
purnimdparyantam \. Cf. Satsdhasrikd, Section Three, st. 23.
39 Paspalum scrobiculatum. Cf. JS 5.3.
40 See, e.g., Dlgha Nikdya, ed. vol. 1, p. 62; cf. also Satsdhasrikd, Section Six.
41 Cf. Wayman 1977: 143.
42 Or, according to the Tibetan translation, "the fall of all the disciples". For
the Kalacakra criticism of several doctrines, see Grbnbold 1992. Cf. also Mishra
2002. On the concept expressed in this stanza, cf. also Alokamdld 274.
43 Cf. Bhagavadgitd 1.36a, 1.39d, 1.44a, 3.1a, 10.18c, 11.51b.
44 Stanzas 63-64 correspond to Bhagavadgitd 4.7-8.
45 It is linked to vac, the speech.
46 Viz., the Pancalaksahevajra.
47 Cf. Tsuda 1974: 29.
48 The same example occurs in the Alokamdld by Kambala (st. 280):
jalapraydtdhipaddni pasyatah [ ] katham nu lokasya najdyate trapd \\.
49 See above, st. 27.
50 Similar concepts can be found in the PAJS (Gnoli 1997a: 10-16).
51 The mahdsukhacakra is inside the crown of the head. Cf. Farrow and
Mennon 1992: 15-6 (Snellgrove 1959, vol. II, p. 107). Cf. Vasantatilakd, ed. p.
39, and Mahdsamvarodayatantra, p. 326.
52 Diseases and medicines must not be confused. The yogin must distinguish
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
between the spiritual and literal meaning of the scriptures.
53 The reference here is to the famous tenets of the Catuspratisaranatasutra,
which is quoted, for instance, in the Abhidharmakosavyakhya (p. 1202),
in the Vimalakirtinirdesasutra (12.12) and in the LTT (p. 47: iha bhaga-
vatd catvdri pratisaranany anyatroktdni \ tadyathd — arthapratisaranata
na vyanjanapratisaranata, jnanapratisaranata na vijnanapratisaranatd,
nitdrthapratisaranatd na neydrthapratisaranatd, dharmapratisaranatd na
pudgalapratisaranata). Cf. also the Mahavyutpatti (1545-1549) and Lamotte
1993 2 : 11-27.
54 Lit. "desire the calculations (icchanti ganitas) [ ]".
55 Cf. VPvol. l,p. 78.
Universita degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"
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Superiority of Vajrayana
— Part I: Some Remarks on the *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana
(rDo rje theg pa'i mtha'gnis sel ba) Ascribed to Jnanasri — *
Taiken Kyuma
1 Introductory Remarks
Setting aside the sutra or vinaya literature, in which the concept of 'author'
comes into question, the attempt to write a history of Indian, especially late
Indian, Buddhism, requires us to take the whole system of each author's thought
or practice into account. This attempt, however, seems to encounter the follow-
ing problem: it is quite common for the same author to write both tantric and
non-tantric works in late Indian Buddhism, yet it is often unclear how he sees
the relationship between tantric and non-tantric doctrines in his entire system of
thought or practice. This might be partly due to the fact that difficulties such as
the unusual and little studied terminology of tantric Buddhism, have prevented
most scholars from being initiated into research in this field and has hindered
investigating of what might possibly be said in tantric texts about such a rela-
tionship. 1 If we try to describe the history of Indian Buddhism properly, it would
be necessary to make clear how these two, i.e., tantric and non-tantric aspects
are related to each other within the whole structure of each author's thought
* I am much obliged to Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson and Dr. Ryugen Tanemura for
reading this short but difficult work together and for helping me to identify a lot
of citations and to get access to many tantric texts and secondary sources. To Prof.
Dr. Francesco Sferra I owe thanks for his fruitful comments and suggestions on our
preliminary edition with annotated translation, which is scheduled for publication
within a few years. This paper is an outcome of our joint project "A Study of the
Position of mantrayana in Late Indian Buddhism" supported in part by Grant-in-
Aid for Scientific Research (C), the MITSUBISHI Foundation and the INAMORI
Foundation. I am also grateful to Prof. Shingo Einoo, who kindly allowed me to
publish this paper in this volume and made a number of helpful suggestions on my
draft.
1 In this regard, we may note that Matthew T Kapstein methodologically divides this
kind of scholasticism into 'Vajrayana scholasticism' and 'scholastic mantrayana'.
While the former, according to Kapstein, means "the philosophical and exegetical
literature on the subject of Vajrayana, or aspects thereof, the developed tantrism
that becomes prominent only during the last few centuries of Indian Buddhist his-
tory, and is much later elaborated in Tibet", the latter refers to "the practice of
mantranaya, that is, the way of mantras, as it was conducted in the monastic uni-
versities in India during the mid-first millenium". Cf. Kapstein 2001: 236. Kap-
stein's dichotomy seems to be helpful when we try to investigate the relationship
between mantrayana and mahayana Buddhism, as discussed below.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
or practice. 2 This will call for scholarly cooperation between different fields of
research to a greater or lesser extent, 3 but how should we undertake such co-
operation? One of the most efficient ways would be to choose and scrutinize
together a tantric text, which goes into details about the relationship between
tantric and non-tantric doctrines. In that case, of course, it would be necessary
to pay attention to the possibility that each author may differ in understanding
the intension of the relata, i.e., the doctrines, and precisely this is one reason
why such cooperation should be required. 4
2 *Vajraydnantadvayanirdkarana and Its Title
The *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje theg pa'i mtha' ghis sel ba , 'VAN'
hereafter) ascribed to JnanasrI seems to be one of the best materials for the
above-mentioned cooperation, since the author of this text gives a detailed expla-
nation of the superiority ofmantrayana (gsafi snags kyi theg pa) to paramitayana
(pha rol tuphyinpa'i theg pa), 5 especially to the Madhyamaka doctrine.
VAN is available to us only in five Tibetan versions. 6 Although its original
title is supposed to be *Vajrayanakotidvayapoha in the catalogue of Otani Uni-
versity, the form of -antadvaya- seems to be more preferable to -kotidvaya-, since
it is quite common to use the term anta in the meaning of extreme views such as
samaropa (sgro 'dogs pa) and apavada (skur pa), both of which are actually dis-
cussed in VAN 7 Concerning the term sel ba, which usually corresponds to apoha
in the case of pramana texts, it is evident that VAN has nothing to do with the
2 A good example of this situation can be found in the intricate arguments about the
concept of yogipratyaksa in recent pramana studies. Although this concept is almost
always mentioned and discussed in the context of the so-called pramana traditions,
it is still far from certain what kind of practical stage is actually presupposed for
the yogin, who has to sharpen his perception by means of practice. For this problem,
cf. Kyuma 2008: 188, n.l.
3 Of course, it does not follow that there is no tiksnendriya who can investigate both
fields properly. Nevertheless, it goes without saying that such cooperation leads us
to remarkable achievements more swiftly.
4 Added to this, we might have to consider if there is any interaction between the re-
lata, since such an interaction will have influence on the relationship itself between
them. In that sense too, the research of the relationship between different doctrines
should always be accompanied by that of the relata.
6 It is still unclear to me if the term mantraydna is invariably distinct from
mantranaya in the context of tantric Buddhism. For example, as is well known,
mahdydna is divided into two nay as, i.e., pdramitdnaya and mantranaya in Ad-
vayavajra's Tattvaratndvali. Cf. Ui 1963: 1 and 30. In this paper I simply follow
VAN's terminology.
6 We are now preparing for a critical edition of VAN with annotated translation, col-
lating five versions, i.e., Peking, Ganden, Narthang, Derge and Cone. For our pre-
liminary edition, cf. Kyuma et al. 2008.
7 1 am indebted to Prof. Isaacson for this suggestion.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
so-called apoha theory, and that the term sel ba is used merely in the sense of
exclusion or negation. To avoid confusion in using the term apoha, according to
the proposal of Prof. Alexis Sanderson, we tentatively adopt *nirakarana, which
seems to be most suitable for sel ba in this case. 8
3 Authorship of VAN
With regard to the authorship of VAN, we do not have any other direct evidence
than the colophon of Tibetan versions, where 'Jnanasri' is referred to as the au-
thor of VAN. 9 Although we have to take into consideration that there might have
been an author called by the name of 'Jnanasri', it is also possible that this name
8 My thanks are due to Prof. Alexis Sanderson, who kindly offered us this possibil-
ity by checking the database of e-texts in his kosa (laptop) on the occasion of the
International Workshop on Tantrism.
9 Cf. P133r2; D120r2: rDo rje theg pa'i mtha' ghis sel ba zes bya ba slob dpon
dzna na sri s bkod pa rdzogs so II There is no mention of any translator and reviser
in the colophon. Another work ascribed to 'Jnanasri', in which there is no mention
of any translator and reviser in the colophon, is P3724; D2897: rDo rje snihpo'i man
hag sgrub pa'i thabs zes bya ba (Vajragarbhopadesasadhana nama). Other Tibetan
works ascribed to 'Jnanasri' are as follows:
P2250, D1539: IHan cig skyes pa'i dkyil 'khor gsum gsal bar byed pa zes bya ba
(Sahajamandalatrayalokasamjanana nama)
[translator] Zi ba 'od
P3746, D2920: rDo rje mam par joms pa'i las bzi sgrub pa'i sbyin sreg gi cho ga
(Vajravidaranakarmacaturasadhanahomavidhi)
[translator] Jnanasri and Rab zi
P3747, D2921: rDo rje mam par joms pa'i las sgrub pa'i bum pa'i cho ga
(Vajravidaranakarmacaturasadhanakalasavidhi)
[translator] Jnanasri and Rab zi
P3748, D2922: rDo rje mam par joms pa'i las bzi sgrub pa'i 'khor lo'i cho ga
(Vajravidaranakarmacaturasadhanacakravidhi)
[translator] Jnanasri and Rab zi
P5533, D4031: mDo sde rgyan gyi don bsdus pa
(Sutralamkarapinddrtha)
[reviser] Gunodadhi [translator] Chos kyi brtson 'grus
These six works are ascribed to Jnanasribhadra by Naudou (cf. Naudou 1968:
180, fn. 1), since he suggests that Jnanasri, Jnanasrimitra, Jnanasribhadra and
Jnanamitra are one and the same person. Cf. ibid. : 178-180. " On peut en con-
clure que le logicien kasmirien Jnanasri et le traducteur qui a collabore avec Chos-
kyi brcon-'grus, Dge-ba'i blo-gros, 'Phags-pa ses-rab, Rab-zi bses-gnen, Sakya bses-
gnen, Rgyal-ba ses-rab, et qui apparait sous les noms de Jnanasri, Jnanasribhadra,
Jnanasrimitra, Jnanamitra, est un seul et meme personage." In his argument, Nau-
dou supposes that Jnanasrimitra of Vikramasila, after the destruction of the tem-
ple, took refuge in Kasmir and began a new life. It is, however, far from proved, as
he himself admits. Regarding the translator Rab zi, it has been pointed out that Rab
zi or Rab zi bses gnen is often mentioned as Jnanasrfs co-translator. Cf. Sukenobu
1974: 68f.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
is the abbreviated form of Jnanasrimitra (ca. 980-1030), 10 Jnanasribhadra (ca.
lie), 11 or any other authors whose names begin with 'Jnanasrf. 12 Since it is too
involved a subject to be treated here in detail, I would like to limit the discussion
to Jnanasribhadra and Jnanasrimitra. It has already been pointed out by Prof.
Hadano that Jnanasribhadra might be the author of VAN. 13 This is based on his
own argument that VAN's perspective on the whole system of Indian Buddhism
appears in Jnanasribhadra's Aryalahkavataravrtti too. Prof. Hadano is right
when he says that VAN shares such a perspective with the Aryalahkavataravrtti.
Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether his argument is enough to identify
the author of VAN or not, in view of the fact that late Indian Buddhism has a
general tendency to put various Buddhist doctrines together.
Regarding Jnanasrimitra, on the other hand, there is a testimony in
Taranatha's History of Indian Buddhism:
"Jnanasrimitra, the second great central pillar (of the Vikramasila temple), was
the author of mtha' gnis sel ba'i bstan bcos and the teacher to whom Sri Atisa also
was much obliged " 14
mtha'ghis sel ba'i bstan bcos in this passage has already been identified by some
scholars as VAN 15 Perhaps we do not need to consider if mtha'ghis sel ba'i bstan
10 Cf. Kajiyama 1998: 6-10; 122ff. (fn.333) and Kyuma 2005: XLV, fn.l.
11 Cf. Vidyabhusana 1920: 342; Hadano 1998: 110.
12 E.g., Jnanasrigupta, who translated Pahcapattinikayasubhasubhaphalaparlksa-
sutra (P970, D304) into Tibetan together with Sakya bio gros, and Jnanasrimati,
who is said to be one of Atisa's teachers (cf. Roerich 1949: 243). Jnanasrimati could
be a scribal error for Jnanasrimitra.
13 Cf. Hadano 1998: 108. In the same place Hadano refers to the content of VAN
very briefly. Sukenobu 1974 also assumes indirectly that our text was written
by Jnanasribhadra, since he concludes that 'Jfianasrl' referred to as author or
translator in bStan 'gyur is identical with Jnanasribhadra in every case. His ar-
gument seems to be based on the fact that Jnanasribhadra translated his own
Pramanaviniscayatika in collaboration with Chos kyi brtson 'grus, who in turn
translated Sutralamkarapindartha ascribed to Jnanasri. Cf. ibid. : 68. However,
the connection of Indian author with Tibetan translators is not sufficient to account
for VAN's authorship itself, and of course, it seems to be hardly possible to assume
that all Jnanasris are equal to Jnanasribhadra. For the circumstances of coopera-
tion between Indian authors and Tibetan translators, cf. also Naudou 1968: 174.
14 Cf. Taranatha 183,11-12: dbus kyi ka chen gnis pa dzna na sri mi tra ni mtha' gnis
sel ba'i bstan bcos mdzad mkhan de yin la I dpal a ti sa'i yah sku drin che ba'i bla
ma cig yin /
15 Cf. Schiefner 1869: 241, fn.l. „mtha' gnis sel ba, genauer im Tandjur B. Nu der
Tantras Rdo rje theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba ((Enthiillung der beiden Enden des Vad-
schrajana))"; Teramoto 1928: 325, fn.l. In his English translation, Chattopadhyaya
also seems to regard mtha' gnis sel ba'i bstan bcos as the name of some text, al-
though he makes no particular remark on it. Cf. Chattopadhyaya 1970: 302, 9-10.
" He was the author of sastra Free From The Two Extremities ".
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
bcos means Jnanasrimitra's bstan bcos, i.e. sastra(s) dealing with the exclusion
of two extreme views, since the use of mtha' ghis sel ba for the abbreviation of
VAN is well attested in various Tibetan sources. 16
Another passage about mtha' ghis sel ba is found in Sum pa mkhan po's dPag
bsam Ijon bzah:
"Jnanasrimitra, who was the second great central pillar (of the Vikramasila tem-
ple) and wrote mtha' ghis sel ba'i bstan bcos, was born in Gauda, " 17
However, Jnanasrimitra's biography following this passage is quite similar to
that of Taranatha. This suggests that Sum pa mkhan po might have borrowed
some passages of Jnanasrimitra's biography from Taranatha, or at least, shared
common source(s) with Taranatha.
Even if these two Tibetan sources refer to Jnanasrimitra as the author of
VAN, we should notice that Taranatha does not mention Jhanasribhadra in his
work at all. Furthermore, it is not quite clear how the Jhanasribhadra (or Ye
ses dpal bzari po) is referred to in the dPag bsam Ijon bzah. Consequently, it
is not impossible to suppose that Jhanasribhadra (or possibly other Jnanasris)
might have been confused with Jnanasrimitra in Tibetan tradition. In any
case, at least, we can say for certain that the author of VAN was thought of as
Jnanasrimitra in some Tibetan sources. 18
16 So far as we know, VAN is quoted as mtha' ghis sel ba with the name of 'Jnanasri'
in the following Tibetan sources:
(1) Bu ston rin chen grub
(a) rGyud sde spyi'i mam gzag bsdus pa rgyud sde rin po che'i gter sgo 'byed pa'i
Ide mig
(b) rGyud sde spyi'i mam par gzag pa rgyud sde thams cad kyi gsah ba gsal bar
byed pa
(c) rGyud sde spyi'i mam par gzag pa rgyud sde rin po che'i mdzes rgyan
(d) rGyud sde'i zab don sgo 'byed rin chen gees pa'i sde mig
(e) bDe mchog spyi mam don gsal
(2) Tson kha pa
(a) sNags rim
(b) gSahs shags tshul khrims
(3) Sum pa mkhan po's dPag bsam Ijon bzah
In all these sources, however, no mention is made of 'Jnanasrimitra' or
'Jnanasribhadra'. For VAN's quotations into these Tibetan sources, cf. Kyuma et
al. 2008 (Appendices): 67-87. Bu ston's (a)-(c) are briefly mentioned in Eimer 1989:
27, fn.4.
17 Cf. dPag 1 118, 18f: dbus kyi ka chen ghis pa mtha' ghis sel ba mdzad pa po dzha na
srl mi tra ni kau tar 'khruhs nas
18 Although Taranatha says that Jnanasrimitra knew many tantric works (cf.
Schiefner 1868: 183,16: gsah shags kyi rgyud sde yah man po mkhyen I ), we
have little evidence for the relationship between Jnanasrimitra and tantric Bud-
dhism, and even for his situation in Vikramasila. According to the biography of
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
4 Synopsis of VAN and Some Important Topics
Before examining some important topics discussed in VAN, it will be useful to
glance at a brief synopsis of the text 19 :
1 (P128r2; D115r7): Purpose of Writing
2 (P128r3-7; D115vl-4): Two Types of Evidence for mantraydna Being the
Teaching of the Buddha Sdkyamuni
2-1 (P128r3-6; D115vl-4): Scriptural Evidence
2-2 (P128r6-7; D115v4): Evidence by Reasoning
3 (P128r7-8; D115v4-6): Epithets Expressing Greatness of mantraydna
3-1 (P128r8-vl; D115v6): Superiority of mantraydna to pdramitdydna Including
the Madhyamaka Doctrine [as the Supreme One]
3-1-1 (P128vl-3; D115v6-116rl): Eleven Kinds of Skillfulness in Means
(thabs mkhas pa)
3-1-1-1 (P128v3-5; D116rl-3): Reliance on the Supreme (Scriptural)
Basis (dmigs pa bla na medpa la dmigs pa)
3-1-1-2 (P128v5-6; D116r3): Supreme Accomplishment (sgrub pa bla
na med pa)
3-1-1-3 (P128v6-7; D116r3-4): Supreme Knowledge (ye ses bla na med
pa)
3-1-1-4 (P128v7; D116r4): Supreme Energy (brtson 'grus bla na med
pa)
3-1-1-5 (P128v7-8; D116r4-5): Ability to Include All Those to Be In-
structed (gdul bya ma lus pa 'dzin par nus pa)
3-1-1-6 (P128v8-129rl; D116r5-6): Abandonment of Impurities (non
mohs pa spon ba)
3-1-1-7 (P129rl-2; D116r6): Empowerment of Impurities (non mohs
pa byin gyis rlob pa)
'Brog mi lo tsa ba, who is said to have received various teachings from panditas
at the Vikramasila temple, Jnanasrimitra told him "the instructions on protection
from obstacles that disturb the body (lus 'khrugs kyi bar chad bsruh ba'i man hag)".
Cf. Davidson 2005: 172. In the same context, Jnanasrimitra is referred to in Stearns
2001 (in Part II, i.e., Tibetan text and English translation of the Bla ma dam pa bod
kyi lo rgyus): 87. "The two great central pillars are Ratnavajra and Jnanasrimitra.
These two were called "pillars," but they did not have greater qualities than the
others." Regarding the teachings 'Brog mi received in Vikramasila, cf. also Stearns
2001: 208-209 (fn.22). Sa pan's sDom gsum rob dbye also provides us with a short
episode about Jnanasrfs debate with non-Buddhist sectarians. In this episode, how-
ever, it is not certain which Jnanasri is told. Cf. Rhoton 2002: 159-160.
19 The numbering of sections corresponds to that of our preliminary edition (cf. Kyuma
et al. 2008). As for the folio- / line number, those of Peking and Derge are shown in
the above synopsis.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
3-1-1-8 (P129r2-3; D116r6-7): Swiftness of Empowerment (byin gyis
rlob pa myur ba)
3-1-1-9 (P129r3-5; D116r7-v2): Swift Emancipation (myur du 'byufi
ba)
3-1-1-10 (P129r5; D116v2): Supreme Intention (bsam pa bla na med
pa)
3-1-1-10-1 (P129r5-6; D116v2-3): Supreme Intention Connected
with Body (sku la sbyar ba)
3-1-1-10-1-1 (P129r6-7; D116v3): Swift Abandonment of the
Mental Imprints (bag chags myur du Idog pa)
3-1-1-10-1-2 (P129r7-vl; D116v3-5): Swift Abandonment of
the Maturation of Actions (las kyi mam par smin pa myur du
Idog pa)
3-1-1-10-1-3 (P129vl-5; D116v5-117rl): Arising of a Great
Mass of Merit (bsod nams kyi tshogs chenpo skye ba)
3-1-1-10-1-4 (P129vl-5; D116v5-117rl): Entering Sponta-
neously into the Selflessness of Things (chos bdag med pa la
ran bzin gyis 'jugs pa)
3-1-1-10-2 (P129v5-8; D117rl-4): Supreme Intention Connected
with Speech (gsuh la sbyar ba)
3-1-1-10-2-1 (P129v8-130rl; D117r4): Becoming a Reciter of
the Supreme Speech of the Victorious One (rgyal ba'i bka' dam
pa bton par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-2 (P130rl-2; D117r4-5): Becoming Mindful of
Teachings (chos rjes su dran par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-3 (P130rl-2; D117r4-5): Having Faith in Teachings
after Understanding Them (chos la ses nas dad par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-4 (P130r2; D117r5): Establishment of Speech with
True Words (nag bden pa'i tshig 'grub pa)
3-1-1-10-2-5 (P130r2-5; D117r6-vl): Attaining Means, Knowl-
edge and Memory with Wisdom (ses rob dan Idan pa'i thabs
dan ye ses dan dran pa 'thob pa)
3-1-1-10-2-6 (P130r5; D117vl): Attaining Singlepointedness in
Contemplation (tin he 'dzin rtsegcigpa 'thob pa)
3-1-1-10-2-7 (P130r6; D117vl-2): Becoming a Worshipper of
the Noble Ones Cphags pa mchod par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-8 (P130r6; D117vl-2): Benefiting People Cgro ba'i
don byas par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-9 (P130r6-7; D117v2): Swift Accomplishment (of
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
the Desired Object) by Virtue of the Presence of Deity (lha he
tin grub pa myur bar 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-10 (P130r7-8; D117v2-3): Controlling All Things
as an Illusion of Syllables (chos thams cad yi ge'i sgyu 'phrul
du dban sgyur bar 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-2-11 (P130r8; D117v3-4): Producing the Understand-
ing That All Words Are like Echoes (sgra thams cad brag ca
dan 'dra ba'i ses pa skye ba)
3-1-1-10-2-12 (P130r8-v2; D117v4-6): Entering Sponta-
neously into the Selflessness of Things (chos bdag med pa la
rah bzin gyis 'jug par 'gyur ba)
3-1-1-10-3 (P130v2-131r6; D117v6-118vl): Supreme Intention
Residing in Mind {thugs la gnas pa)
3-1-1-11 (P131r6-132r7; D118vl-119vl): Skillfulness in the Means of
the Supreme Practice (spyodpa bla na medpa'i thabs mkhas pa)
3-1-1-11-1 (P131r6-v2; D118vl-4): Abandonment of the Practice
Weakening the Faculty of a Practitioner (nus pa'i chuh bar byed
pa'i spyodpa spoh ba)
3-1-1-11-2 (P131v2-132r2; D118v4-119r4): Abandonment of the
Practice Distracting the Mind of a Practitioner (g-yeh bar byed pa'i
spyodpa spoh ba)
3-1-1-11-3 (P132r2-7; D119r4-vl): Abandonment of the Practice
Grasping Something as Existent (dhospor 'dzinpa'i spyodpa spoh
ba)
3-2 (P132r7-v2; D119vl-3): Greatness of mantrayana as Vehicle of Means
4 (P132v2-4; D119v3-4): Definition of mantrayana: Two Types of mantra
5 (P132v4-133rl; D119v4-120rl): Meaning of the Abandonment of Exclusion
(skur pa, apavada) and Superimposition (sgro 'dogs pa, samaropa)
5-1 (P132v4-6; D119v4-6): Meaning of the Abandonment of Exclusion
5-2 (P132v6-133rl; D119v6-120rl): Meaning of the Abandonment of Su-
perimposition
6 (P133rl-2; D120rl-2): Concluding Verse
(Colophon: P133r2; D120r2)
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
4.1 Superiority of mantrayana and Skillfulness in Means
For the purpose of assuring the legitimacy of mantrayana in Buddhism, the text
begins with proving by both scriptures (agama) 20 and reasoning (yukti) 21 that
the teaching of mantrayana never deviates from that of Sakyamuni. Following
this proof, several epithets are given as representing the great characteristics of
mantrayana. 22 In this context, however, the following question is raised: how is
it possible to say that mantrayana is superior to paramitay ana, especially to the
Madhyamaka doctrine? In answer to this question, the author gives a detailed
account of the skillfulness in eleven kinds of means, on which the superiority of
mantrayana to paramitay ana is founded. The above synopsis clearly shows that
the greater part of the text is devoted to the explanations of these eleven kinds of
means. 23 It is noteworthy that the author puts so much emphasis on skillfulness
20 For these scriptures, cf. Kyuma et al. 2008: 31-32 and 49-50. Cf. also Sum pa
mkhan po's passage given in fn.36.
21 This reasoning is as follows: mantrayana is common to the teaching of Buddha in
that it accomplishes the benefit of self and others (bdag dan gzan gyi don), by bas-
ing itself on the twofold truth. For this argument, cf. Kyuma et al. 2008: 32 and
50. A similar kind of passage is found in TriYaVya 54,5-6: ... bden pa ghis la
gnas pas bdag dan gzan gyi don phun sum tshogs par sgrub pa la dbye bar med
pas so II "... For there is no difference (between the profound and great vehicle,
i.e., mantrayana, and the profound vehicle, i.e., paramitay ana) in that (both ve-
hicles,) by means of residing in the twofold truth, accomplishes the benefit of self
and others perfectly." This passage does not directly legitimate mantrayana as the
teaching of the Buddha, but emphasizes the non-difference between mantrayana
and. paramitay ana. For the relationship between the twofold truth and the two ve-
hicles, cf. also TriYaVya 54,9-10: don dam pa'i bden pa hid la ni nam yah dbye
ba ga' shig kyah 'byuh ba med la I kun rdzob hid kyis zab pa dan rgya die bar
gyur ba'o II "Although, in the ultimate truth, there never arises a difference (be-
tween the profound vehicle and the profound and great vehicle), only in (the level
of) convention, there arise the profound (vehicle) and the (profound and) great (ve-
hicle)". In tantric context, samvrtisatya and paramarthasatya are often related to
utpattikrama and nispannakrama respectively. Cf. Isaacson 2002: 467-469. In
this regard, cf. also SeUd v.9: satyadvayena dharmanam desana vajrino mama I
lokasamvrtisatyena satyena paramarthatah II "I, the vajra-holder, teach dharmas
by means of the twofold truth, i.e., the conventional truth and the ultimate truth."
22 The following is the epithets of mantrayana mentioned in 3 of the synopsis: rdo
rje'i theg pa (*vajrayana), 'bras bu'i theg pa {*phalayana), thabs kyi theg pa
C-'upayayana), gsah ba'i theg pa (*guhyayana). It is with regard to thabs kyi theg
pa (more exactly speaking, thab kyi che ba, i.e., the fact that mantrayana has the
great means) that the author introduces the concept of skillfulness in eleven kinds
of means.
23 Among them, both 'the means of supreme intention' (3-1-1-10: bsampa bla na med
pa) and 'the means of supreme practice' (3-1-1-11: spyod pa bla na med pa) are
discussed at length. The latter is carefully discussed by Dr Tanemura's article in
this volume.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
24
in means (upayakausalya), even though it is not the title of this work.
4.2 Greatness of mantrayana
With regard to the superiority of mantrayana, the concept of skillfulness in
eleven kinds of means seems to be more or less relevant to the greatnesses of
mahayana mentioned in the Mahayanasutralamkara: (1) the greatness of (scrip-
tural) basis (alambanamahattva), (2) the greatness of conduct (pratipattima-
hattva), (3) the greatness of knowledge (jnanamahattva), (4) the greatness of un-
dertaking endeavour (viryarambhamahattva), (5) the greatness of skillfulness in
means (upayakausalyamahattva), (6) the greatness of excelling (in various prop-
erties of the Buddha) (samudagamamahattva), (7) the greatness of actions of the
Buddha (buddhakarmamahattva). 25 Among these seven kinds of greatness, (1) is
clearly equivalent to the first means of VAN (3-1-1-1: dmigspa bla na medpa la
dmigs pa), since the abundance of scriptural basis is emphasized in both cases. 26
(3) and (4) are, at least literally, correspondent to the third (3-1-1-3: ye ses bla
na med pa) and fourth (3-1-1-4: brtson grus bla na med pa) respectively 27 From
these facts one may say that the author of VAN was influenced by the concept of
the greatnesses of mahayana in accounting for the superiority of mantrayana. 28
24 In later Tibetan tradition, several authors, such as Tripitakamala, Ratnakarasanti
and our Jnanasri, are mentioned in the context of explaining how mantrayana is
superior to pdramitdydna. As said above, this is one of deciding factors in recon-
structing the history of late Indian Buddhism. For several kinds of mantraydna's
superiority given by these authors, cf. Hopkins 2005: 13ff.; Guarisco / McLeod 2005:
79; Rhoton 2002: 182, n.l. Regarding Bu ston and Kori sprul yon tan rgya mtsho's
references to Jnanasri, cf. Kyuma et al. 2008: 67 (Appendices).
2B Cf. MaSuA 171 (XIX vv.59-60): dlambanamahattvam ca pratipatter dvayos tathd
I jhdnasya vlrydrambhasya updye kausalyasya ca II (59) uddgamamahattvam ca
buddhakarmanah I etan mahattvayogdd dhi mahdydnam nirucyate II (60) I thank
Prof. Isaacson for his valuable advice about this similarity.
26 Cf. MaSuA: 171,14-15: saptavidhamahattvayogdn mahdydnam ity ucyate.
dlambanamahattvendpramdnavistlrnasutrddidharmayogdt... "(It) is called the
great vehicle, since (it) is endowed with seven kinds of greatness: (it is called the
great vehicle,) since (it) is endowed, by means of the greatness of (scriptural) basis,
with the teachings of immeasurable and extensive scriptures and so on..."
27 On the other hand, the second one (pratipattimahattva), which is paraphrased
as accomplishing the benefit of self and others (Cf. MaSuA: 171,15), seems to be
closer to the context of 2-2 of the synopsis. It goes without saying that the fifth
one (upayakausalyamahattva) is associated with 'the skillfulness in eleven kinds of
means' itself of VAN.
28 We must also draw attention to the fact that three kinds of supremacy (dnuttarya)
of mahayana, i.e., those with regard to pratipatti, dlambana and samuddgama,
are enumerated in MaVi 5.1a-c. Cf. also Hayashi 1996: 56, fn. 72. In
this case, however, dlambana is rendered by Sthiramati with dharma such as
pdramitddi or dharmadhdtu (cf. MaViTi 199,23-200,1). Bodhisattvabhumi also
enumerates seven kinds of greatness, but they are slightly different from those in
the Mahayanasutralamkara (cf. BoSaBhu 297, 7ff.): (1) the greatness of dharma
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
4.3 Difference between mantraydna and the Madhyamaka doctrine
Another important issue in VAN is the way in which the author discriminates
between mantraydna and the Madhyamaka doctrine. This topic appears in 3-1-
1-10-3 (thugs la gnas pa'i bsam pa bla na med pa). The author's argument can
be summarized as follows: when the supreme intention 29 resides in the prac-
titioner (mantrin)^ mind, they always abide in seeing everything just like an
illusion (mayopamadrsti). Quoting a verse from the Pancakrama, 30 the author
emphasizes the importance of this meditative condition. Although the teaching
of mdyopama is, according to the author, taught in the Madhyamaka doctrine
too, mantraydna is different from the Madhyamaka doctrine in that the former
never loses mayopamadrsti by virtue of the pledge (dam tshig) of mind. 31 Since
mayopamadrsti is unbreakable (mi phyed pa), mantraydna has the name of the
diamond vehicle (rdo rje'i theg pa), and is faster than the other paths. In the
case of the Madhyamaka doctrine, however, mayopamadrsti arises only rarely
because of the lack of pledge.
As discussed above, it is mainly by means of skillfulness in means that
the author explains the superiority of mantraydna to pdramitdydna including
the Madhyamaka doctrine. Added to this aspect, it is noteworthy that the ex-
istence of pledge is also highlighted as a factor essential to the superiority of
mantraydna. 32
4.4 Two Extremes with regard to the Diamond Vehicle
Even though the superiority of mantraydna plays a major part in the text, the
author's main purpose consists, as is suggested by the title of this text, in reject-
(dharmamahattva), (2) the greatness of arising the mind (pursuing the awak-
ening) (cittotpadamahattva), (3) the greatness of belief (adhimuktimahattva), (4)
the greatness of intention (adhyasayamahattva), (5) the greatness of requisite
(sambhdramahattva), (6) the greatness of time (kdlamahattva), (7) the greatness
of excelling (in various properties of the Buddha) (samuddgamamahattva). As for
(1), it is also paraphrased as bodhisattvapitakavaipulya. This would be similar to
dlambanamahattva enumerated in the Mahay anasutralamkara .
29 This 'supreme intention (bsam pa bla na med pa)' connects itself with practitioner's
body, speech and mind, and in each case, it bestows various virtues on him.
30 PaKra III 33: bahunatra him uktena vajrayane tu tattvatah I yad yad alambayed
yogi tat tan mayaiva kalpayet II "What is the use of speaking much about this? The
truth of the diamond vehicle is (as follows): whatever a yogin takes as object, he
considers all of that as an illusion." For this English translation, see Kyuma et al.
2008: 58.
31 In the same context, the need of pledge is also linked with the fact that mantraydna
is suitable for those whose faculties are excellent (tlksnendriya).
32 It may be relevant to note that this argument is introduced by Tson kha pa in his
gSan shags tshul khrims. Cf. Kyuma et al. 2008 (Appendices): 83. For English
translation, cf. Sparham 2005: 105ff.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ing the two extreme views with regard to mantraydna. The two extreme views
given near the end of the text (5 of the synopsis) are summarized as follows:
*apavdda (skur pa): to exclude inferior people (mchog ma yin pa) from
those to be instructed (gdul bya)
*samaropa (sgro 'dogs pa): to suppose any difference with regard to the
proper accomplishment of fruit ('bras bu yah dag par grub pa) and the
path (lam) 33
Both of two extremes are concerned with mantraydna 's soteriology, but it
is slightly strange that they do not have the same stratum (ddhdra): while
the apavdda deals with those to be instructed, the samdropa argues the
non-difference regarding the proper accomplishment of fruit and the path.
Concerning the samdropa, any superimposition is denied on the grounds that
the whole world and all beings are, from the beginning, pervaded by Buddha's
body and knowledge.
More noteworthy is that two kinds of interpretation are given to the term
mantra in relation to the apavdda:
(1) the essential or natural mantra (no bo hid kyi gsah shags), in which means
and wisdom are identical with each other
(2) the metaphorical or constructed mantra (btags pa'i gsah shags), i.e., an as-
sembly of deity, mantra, seal (mudrd), ritual (karman), contemplation, wor-
ship and praise
According to the author, this dichotomy of mantra corresponds to the following
two kinds of those to be instructed respectively:
(1) superior people (mchog), who are supposed to accomplish all the above-
mentioned eleven kinds of means
(2) inferior people (mchog ma yin pa), who are not always capable of accom-
plishing all of them
It is in this context that the author defines apavdda as the exclusion of inferior
people from those to be instructed. 34 Interestingly enough, the same kind of
relationship between mantraydna and those to be instructed is mentioned with
the name of VAN in the dPag bsam Ijon bzah:
33 Taking into account that the path (mdrga) is discussed as one of the main topics in
5-2 of the synopsis, we emended las (P132v6; D119v6) into lam in our preliminary
edition.
34 In 3-1-1-5 of the synopsis, mantraydna is described as including even Candala or
Venukara into those to be instructed. This fact is enumerated as one of the skillful-
ness in means.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
"Even within the mahdydna, the two (teachings) are taught for the sake of two
kinds of those to be instructed (vineya): pdramitdydna as the common mahdydna
(is taught for the sake of) those to be instructed, who are intent on (the teaching)
which regards the cause as path, and who are less intelligent than those to be
instructed in the mantraydna. mantra- or vajrayana (is taught for the sake of)
superior minds who are intent on (the teaching) in which the fruit is regarded as
path. (The following) is taught in the mDo sde gdams hag 'bog pa'i rgyal po 3S —
After having set well in motion the running of the wheel ofdharma, (for the sake
of those who are) engaged in the cause, the Diamond Vehicle, a shorter road, will
arise in future. — Thus (it is) taught in the mtha' ghis sel ba too." 36
Here Sum pa mkhan po divides mahdydna into pdramitdydna and mantraydna,
relating inferior people to the former, and superior people to the latter. Although
it is not clear that the author of VAN regards inferior people as belonging to
pdramitdydna, it is not unreasonable to suppose from the last sentence of the
above passage that Sum pa mkhan po's argument was more or less influenced by
the content of VAN 37 .
5 Concluding Remarks
What has been examined above leads us to the following conclusions:
(1) VAN is ascribed to Jnanasrimitra by Taranatha and Sum pa mkhan po,
although the colophon of VAN mentions 'Jnanasri' as its author
(2) The greater part of VAN is dedicated to the explanation of skillfulness in
means (thabs la mkhas pa), by which the superiority of mantraydna to
pdramitdydna is guaranteed
(3) The idea of skillfulness in means could be derived partly from that of the
greatnesses of mahdydna
(4) Regarding the superiority of mantraydna to the Madhyamaka doctrine, the
author of VAN puts emphasis on mantraydna's concept of 'pledge (dam
tshig) of mind', by means of which mdyopamadrsti is well stabilized and
35 This source, which is yet to be identified, is curiously quoted with the name ofgSah
ba luh bstan pa'i mdo (*Guhyavydkaranasutra) in VAN. It is not impossible to re-
gard this source as a certain tantric text pretending to be dgama. For the influence
of this source in Tibetan tradition, cf. Karmay 1998.
36 Cf. dPag I 58,25-59,2: theg chen la yah gdul bya rgyu lam du byed pa la mos pa
shags kyi gdul bya la Itos te bio dman pa dan 'bras bu lam du byed pa la mos pa
bio mchog ghis kyi don theg chen thun moh pa phar phyin theg pa dan gsah shags
rdo rje theg pa ghis su gsuhs te I mdo sde gdams hag 'bog pa'i rgyal po las — rgyu la
mos pa rgyu chos kyi (emended: kyis) I 'khor lo rob tu bskor byas nas I rdo rje theg
pa he lam zig I ma 'ohs dus na 'byuh bar 'gyur I zes dan I mtha' ghis sel bar yah de
Itar bsad do II
37 For the relationship between mahdydna and mantraydna, Cf. also fn.5.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
becomes unbreakable (because of this firmness, mantraydna is also called
the diamond vehicle)
(5) Both two extreme views with regard to the diamond vehicle are relevant
to mantraydna's soteriology: in mantraydna one should neither exclude
inferior people from those to be instructed, nor superimpose any difference
with regard to the proper accomplishment of fruit and the path
(6) In relation to the argument about those to be instructed, two types of in-
terpretation are given to the term mantra
From these points we might first go on to an even more detailed examination
of the authorship of VAN. This also means that we will have to reflect on how
VAN can be associated with Jnanasrlmira's (or possibly Jnanasribhadra's, or
even other Jnanasris') other works. Moreover, it would also be necessary to con-
sider to what extent VAN has been esteemed in Tibetan tradition. Judging from
Bu ston and Tsori kha pa's references to VAN, it seems to be quite clear that this
text has been referred to as one of important sources when the superiority of
mantraydna to pdramitdydna is proved.
-482-
Superiority of Vajrayana, Part I
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Taranatha Cf. Schiefner 1868.
TriYaVya Cf. Hayashi 1996.
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Progress and Downfall of Buddhism in India, by Sumpa Khan-po Yece pal
jor. Calcutta, 1908. (Rep. Kyoto, 1984)
PaKra Pancakrama. Katsumi Mimaki and Toru Tomabechi (eds.) Pancakrama:
Sanskrit and Tibetan Texts Critically Edited with Verse Index and Facsim-
ile Edition of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian
Cultural Studies for Unesco, 1994. (Bibliotheca Codicum Asiaticorum 8)
BoSaBhu Bodhisattvabhumi. Unrai Wogihara (ed.) Bodhisattvabhumi, A State-
ment of Whole Course of the Bodhisattva (Being Fifteen Section of
Yogacarabhumi) , Sankibo Buddhist Book Store, Tokyo, 1971.
MaVi Madhyantavibhagakarika. Edited in MaViBha. See below.
MaViTi Madhyantavibhagatlka. Susumu Yamaguchi (ed.) Madhyantavibhagatika,
Sous-commentaire de Sthiramati, dans lequel est interprete le Bhasya de
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Librairie Hajinkaku, 1935.
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A Buddhist Philosophical Treatise Edited for the First Time from Sanskrit
Manuscript, Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation ( ), 1964.
MaSuA Mahay anasutralahkara. Sylvain Levi (ed.) Mahay ana- Sutralamkara Tome
I, Paris, 1907.
VAN *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana ofJnanasri. Tibetan title: rDo rje thegpa'i
mtha'gnis sel ba. Ota. 4537, rgyud grel, vol. nu, ff.l28r2-133r2; Toh. 3714,
rgyud, vol. tsu, f.H5r7-120r2.
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Sanskrit Text by Francesco Sferra, Critical Edition of the Tibetan Transla-
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2006. (Serie Orientale Roma XCIX)
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Hakuyu Hadano: Jnanasribhadra cho Sei Nyuryogakyochu Oboegaki,
in: Chibetto ■ Indogaku shusei dai 4kan Indo hen II, Kyoto, pp.100—
121.
Keijin Hayashi: Ratnakarasanti no koyosho: Triyanavyavasthana
Shiyaku, Ronso ajia no bunto ka shiso 5, pp. 34-93.
Jeffrey Hopkins: Yoga Tantra. Paths to Magical Feats. His Holiness the
Dalai Lama Dzon-ka-ba. Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins.
Co-edited by Kevin A. Vose and Steven N. Weinberger. Ithaca, New
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Ratnakarasanti's Hevajrasahajasadyoga (Studies in Ratnakarasanti's
tantric works I). In: Raffaele Torella (ed.): he Parole e i Marmi: studi in
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per l'Africa e l'Oriente 2001 [appeared 2002]. Serie Orientate Roma
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Yuichi Kajiyama: An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy. An Anno-
tated Translation of the Tarkabhasa of Moksakaragupta . Wien (WSTB
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Matthew T. Kapstein: Scholastic Buddhism and the Mantrayana, in:
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Samten G. Karmay: King Tsa/Dza and and Vajrayana. In: The Ar-
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gaki, Nihon bukkyogakkai nenpo 73, pp. 181-191.
Taiken Kyuma, Ryugen Tanemura and Harunaga Isaacson: A Study
of the Position of mantrayana in Late Indian Buddhism, A Report of
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Jean Naudou: Les bouddhistes kasmiriens au may en age. Paris.
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Rhoton 2002 Jared Rhoton: A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes: Essential
Distinctions among the Individual Liberation, Great Vehicle, and
Tantric Systems: The sDom Gsum rab dbye and Six Letters, Sakya
Pandita Kunga Gyaltshen, Translated by Jared Douglas Rhoton,
Edited by Victoria R. M. Scott, State University of New York Press.
Roerich 1949 George N. Roerich: The Blue Annals. Part 1. Calcutta.
Schiefner 1868 Anton Schiefner: Taranathae de Doctrinae Buddhicae in India Propa-
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Schiefner 1869 Anton Schiefner: Taranathas Geschichte des Buddhismus in Indien.
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Lam 'bras Tradition in Tibet, Boston. (Studies in Indian and Tibetan
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to kenkyu. Mikkyo bunka 107, pp.39-70.
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Superiority of Vajrayana
— Part II: Superiority of the Tantric Practice Taught in
the *Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (rDo rje theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba) —
Ryugen TANEMURA
1 Opening Remarks
As stated in Part I by Prof. Taiken Kyuma, Jnanasri devotes the most part of
the Vajrayanantadvayanirakarana (VAN) to the arguments of the eleven kinds
of skilfulness in means (*upayakausalya) by which the Vajrayana is superior to
the non-tantric Mahayana, i.e. the Paramitayana in general and Madhyamaka
in particular. The eleventh upayakausalya is the fact that the tantric practice
(*caryd, spyodpa) is superior in respect that it excludes the following three kinds
of wrong practice: (1) practices which weaken the faculties of a practitioner, (2)
practices which distract the mind of a practitioner, and (3) practices which cause
a practitioner to grasp things as existent. In other words, Jnanasri tries to jus-
tify the following three mattes: (1) tantric Buddhism allows a practitioner's de-
sire, or it takes a negative attitude towards the traditional Buddhist asceticism,
(2) tantric Buddhism takes a negative attitude towards external actions such
as worship of a stupa or caitya and recitation of a scripture, and (3) the tantric
practice involves consumption of impure substances. The author argues that
these three kinds of practice, which transgress the traditional Buddhist moral
precepts and the boundary of purity, are superior in the respect that they are
powerful ways which lead a practitioner to the goal, i.e. attainment of enlight-
enment very swiftly 1 The latter half of this paper examines the backgrounds of
Jnanasri's arguments concerning the superiority of the tantric practice.
1 For the teaching that tantric carya leads a practitioner to the goal, i.e. enlighten-
ment very swiftly, see MuAv ad HeTa 1.6.1: ubhayatattvayogad api samayair vina
na sighrataram bodhih syat. atas carydpatalam aha — atah param ityadina. sarva-
buddhajhaya duskaravratacaranam carya. (MS A f.41r3-4, MS B folio missing. I
follow the reading of Isaacson's preliminary edition. Cf. S ED p. 60, 11.10-11. S E d reads
sarvabuddhokta yd for sarvabuddhajnaya.) (Trsl.) 'Even if [the initiate is perform-
ing his practice] based on the two stages (= utpattikrama and nispannakrama), he
does not attain the enlightenment more swiftly without the post-initiatory obser-
vance (samayaih). Thus [the Blessed One] teaches the chapter of the carya begin-
ning with [the phrase] 'after that.' The carya is keeping the observance difficult
to keep, by command of all Buddhas.'; YoRaMa ad HeTa 1.6.1: caryaya vina na-
sti sighratara bodhir iti tarn aha. (S ED p.119, 11.9-10) (Trsl.) '[A practitioner does
not attain] enlightenment more swiftly without the post-initiatory practice. [The
Blessed One] therefore teaches it [in this chapter].'
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
2 The tantric practice excludes the practice which weakens
faculties of a practitioner 2
Before discussing the three respects in which tantric practice is superior to that
of the Paramitayana, I would like to point out that "practice (*carya)" mentioned
in this part of the VAN means the post-initiatory practice which an initiate of
tantric Buddhism is permitted to perform. This caryd is sometimes used as a
synonym ofsamaya or samaydcdra (post-initiatory observance). 3
Jnanasri's argument concerning the first point is as follows. If a practitioner
nourishes his body and make it powerful, his mind will be joyful. When his
mind and body become very powerful, he can control himself by meritorious ac-
tions (dge ba spyad pa). On the other hand, if a practitioner torments his body,
his mind will not be joyful. If his mind is weakened, he cannot control him-
self no matter how he makes his body powerful. Buddha taught the traditional
asceticism such as twelve dhutagunas for practitioners with inferior faculties.
Jnanasri quotes Guhysamdjatantra (GuSaTa) 7.3 as a scriptural support of his
position, i.e. a negative attitude towards religious practices which torment the
body of a practitioner. The similar arguments are found in the Guhyasamaja
corpus. Candrakirti comments upon GuSaTa 7.2-7.3 in his Pradlpoddyotana
(PraUd) as follows:
GuSaTa 7.2: sarvakdmopabhogais tu sevyamdnair yathecchatah |
2 VAN P £131r6-131v2, D f.l81vl-181v4.
3 For this understanding of the meaning of caryd, see, e.g., PraUd ad GuSaTa ch.5
(prose before 5.1): adhigatakramadvayah prdptdbhisekas cdpi carydm vind na sid-
hyatiti darsayann aha, athetyddi (p. 46, 11.2-3). (Trsl.) 'Even though he has under-
stood the two stages [of practice, i.e. the utpattikrama and the nispannakrama], and
has been initiated [by his master], [a practitioner] cannot obtain the accomplish-
ment without the post-initiatory observance. In order to teach this, [the chapter]
beginning with atha has been taught.'; YoRaMa ad HeTa 1.6.1: gurubuddhdndm
djhayd duhkaravratacaranam caryd, tarn pravaksydmi (part II, p.119, 11.10-11).
(Trsl.) 'The caryd is keeping the observance difficult to do by the command (or under
the permission) of the master and the Buddhas. I shall teach it [in this chapter].';
MuAv ad HeTa 1.6.1 (quoted in note 1).
Wedemeyer understands that the abhiseka in the above passage of the PraUd
refers to the so-called "receiving initiation" which takes place after the third stage of
the five stages (svddhisthdnakrama) (2002: 192.4 ff.). See CaMePra ch.l: yadd md-
yopamasamddhisamdpanno bhavati tadd sarvabuddhdbhisekam pratilabhate. (S ED
p. 6, 1.6-7) The sub-commentary, however, seems to understand the relevant part
differently. See PraUdAbhPra ad PraUd ch.5: de la le'u dan po nas mam pa ghis
kyi lha'i sku bstan to || le'u gnis pa nas don dam pa'i bden pa 'ba' zig tu bstan to ||
le'u gsum pa nas lha'i sku'i bdag nid kun rdzob kyi bden pa bstan to || le'u bzi pa
nas kun rdzob dan don dam pa'i bden pa'i bdag nid kyi thugs kyi dkyil 'khor bstan
to || de Itar bsgoms pas rim pa gnis yohs su rtogs pa'i rim pa gnis rtogs pa'o \\ dbah
bskur ba thob pas kyah zespa ni le'u bzi pa nas gsuhs pa'i rim pas so || (P f.265v5— 7,
D vol.ki f.222rl-3)
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
svadhidaivatayogena svam pardms 4, ca prapujayet ||
PraUd ad GuSaTa 7.2: evam prapahcacarydm nirdisya nisprapahcacarydm adhi-
krtydha — sarvetyddi. yathecchata ity dtmecchdnurupatah. yathdsukham anu-
bhuyamdnaih pahcakdmagunaih svdtmdnam pardms ca pujayet tarpayet. katha-
m? svadhidaivatayogena mdyopamasamddhind.
(Trsl. of PraUd) Having taught the practice with elaboration (prapancacaryd) 5 in
this way, [the Blessed One] intends [to teach] the practice without elaboration
(nisprapancacaryd) and says sarva° etc. "At the [practitioner's] will" means "fol-
lowing his own wish." [That is to say,] he should worship, i.e. please himself and
others by enjoying the five desired objects of the sense faculties at his will. How?
By the yoga of his chosen deity, i.e. the concentration [to realise that everything
is] like illusion.
GuSaTa 7.3: duskarair niyamais tlvraih sevyamdno na sidhyati |
sarvakdmopabhogais tu sevayams cdsu sidhyati ||
PraUd ad GuSaTa 7.3: ata eva aha — duskarair ityddi. kdyaklamayogena vihdrd-
dinivartandni duskardni vrksamulddidvddasadhutagunaih. 8 niyamdh giripata-
ndgnipravesddlni. 1 tlvrdni kdsthdni. etaih sevyamdnah pidyamdno na sidhyati,
bodhim na labhate. tarhi katham ity aha, sarvakdmopabhogais tu sevayann d-
su sidhyatiti. sarvaih kdmyante prdrthyanta iti sarvakdmdh, tesdm upabhogaih
sevayan mahdvajradharam drddhayann dsu ihaiva janmani mahdmudrdsiddhi-
labhi bhavati. yathdrutam nisprapancacaryd.
(Trsl. of PraUd) For this very reason, [the Blessed One] teaches [the verse] begin-
ning with duskaraih. Ascetic practices means those which avoid pleasure etc. by
the body-tormenting yoga, i.e. the twelve dhutagunas such as sitting under a tree.
Observance means falling down from a mountain, entering fire etc. Tivra (en-
durable) is paraphrased as kdstha. If [the practitioner] is affected (sevyamdnah),
i.e. tormented, by these [ascetic] practices, then he does not attain the accomplish-
ment, i.e. does not attain enlightenment. If so, how can he [attain enlightenment]?
[The Blessed One] says "If he does practice enjoying all desired objects, he will at-
tain the accomplishment quickly." Sarvakdma should be understood to be those
which are desired or longed for by all people. If he does practice, i.e. worships
the Great Vajra Holder, enjoying these, he will attain the accomplishment of the
Great Seal quickly, i.e. in this life. This is the practice without elaboration, and
[this part of the tantra should be interpreted] literally. 8
4 svam pardmsH F ED ; pardhgais M ED
5 For the three kinds of practice, i.e. the practice with elaboration (prapahcacaryd),
the practice without elaboration {nisprapancacaryd), and the practice absolutely
free from elaboration (atyantanisprapancacaryd), see below.
6 °dhutagunaih]\ em.; 'vratagunaih C ED
7 giripatandgnipravesddlni ]] em. following YoMaPaKraTi; giripdtandgnipravesddlni
Ced
8 For yathdruta (literal interpretation), one of the satkoti of the PraUd, see PraUd:
mandalddiprakalpesu carydydm ca yathdyatham \ uttdnam arthakathanam tad
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The above-quoted verses of the GuSaTa and the passages of the PraUd teach
that a practitioner should enjoy the five desired objects agreeable to the sense
faculties, not practicing asceticism like the twelve dhutagunas. Jnanasri states
that the reason why a practitioner should abandon the traditional asceticism is
that such asceticism causes distraction of a practitioner's mind, which in turn
causes failure in attaining the accomplishment. This teaching is found in the
Caryamelapakapradipa (CaMePra), one of the principal exegeses of the so-called
Arya-school of the GuSaTa:
CaMePra ch.9: ato visistdt kdrandd visistam eva kdryam utpadyate. evam eva
rupadayo visaydh 9 paribhogabhdvam dpadyamdnd visistaphaldvdhakd bha-
vantity avagantavyam. 10 anyatha duskaracaryayd 11 cittasyaikdgratd na bhavati,
pancendriyanigrahatvdt. yathoktam bhagavatd srlparamddyamahdyogatantre
duskarair niyamais tivrair murtih susyati duhkhitd |
duhkhdd viksipyate cittam viksepdt siddhir anyatha ||
iti. mulatantre 'py aha —
duskarair niyamais tivraih sevyamdno na sidhyati 12 |
sarvakdmopabhogais tu sevayams cdsu sidhyati 13 || (GuSaTa 7.3)
it i. (W ED p.463, 1.8-p.464, 1.2; S ED p.79, 11.4-12)
(Trsl.) 14 For this reason, a distinguished cause brings a distinguished outcome.
In the very same way, it should be understood that the objects of the sense facul-
ties such as rupa, if they reach the state of enjoyment[, i.e. if they are agreeable],
bring a distinguished outcome. Otherwise, if he practises the endurable ascetic
practices, his mind is not concentrated, since it damages the five sense faculties.
This is as taught in the Great Yogatantra named SrTparamddya: "By practis-
ing asceticism and keeping endurable observance, the body [of a practitioner] is
pained and [therefore] weakened. If [the body] is pained, the mind becomes dis-
tracted. If the mind is distracted, the accomplishment is not realised." [This is]
also taught in the root scripture: "A practitioner does not attain the accomplish-
ment by keeping the observances of severe asceticism that are hard to practice.
He attain the accomplishment swiftly depending upon the enjoyment of all desire
(or desired objects)."
The author of the CaMePra "quotes" a verse from the Paramddya (PaA) as a
yathdrutabhdsitam || (C E d P-3, 11.11-12).
9 rupadayo visaydh~S conj.; rupadayo visaya" MS S ED ; rupddivisaya' W ED
10 avagantavyam ]] em. ISAACSON; avagantavyd MS; avagantavydh
avagantavyah W ED
11 duskaracaryayd^ W ED ; duskaracarya" MS S ED
12 sidhyati I MS W ED ; siddhyati S ED
13 sidhyati'S MS W ED ; siddhyati S ED
14 See also Wedemeyer 2007: 285.4-286.2.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
scriptural support of his position. Although a similar teaching is found in the
PaA, the verse quoted in the CaMePra is not found in the PaA 15 . I quote the
relevant part of the PaA below: 16
PaA: de la ci 11 Itar phyag rgya thams cad dan rnal 'byor dag rjes su sgrub pa yin
ze na |
phyag rgya skus 18 ni brtan pa'i phyir || de yah bde bas brtan par 'gyur ||
sdug bshal gyis ni g-yo bar 'gyur || yah na 'chi ba thob par 'gyur ||
de ni rnal 'byor sems las 'byuh || yid bde ba yis rab tu sgrub ||
yid mi bde bas g-yo ba 'am || yah na 'gog pa 19 thob par 'gyur ||
de phyir 'bad pa thams cad kyis || phyag rgya rnal 'byor rjes grub byed ||
dka' thub med cih hespa med || bde ba dga' bas bsgrub bar bya ||
zes bya ba sin tu gsah ba beam Idan 'das rdo rje sems dpas gsuhs so || de la dam
tshig thams cad kyi rnal 'byor rjes su sgrub pa'i bde ba de 20 gah yin ze na |
'dodpa kun la Ions spyod cih || ci 'dod par ni bsten pa 21 yis ||
rah gi lhayi rnal 'byor gyis 22 || bdag dan gzan mams mchod par gyis || 23
zes bya ba'o 2i || de bzin gsegs pa thams cad 2S mchog tu gsah ba bla na med pa'i
thegpa chen po'i 26 rnal 'byor beam Idan 'das rdo rje sems dpa' mchog tu bde ba zes
bya'o 21 || de la dam tshig thams cad kyi rnal 'byor rjes su sgrub pa de 28 gah yin zes
na |
dka' thub hes pa mi zad pas 29 || sdug bshal Idan pas myur du skams ||
sdug bshal gyis ni sems g-yeh 'gyur || rnal 'byor la ni sbyor ba min ||
15 Cf. Moriguchi 1993: 176-177, Wedemeyer 2007: 285 footnote 48.
16 The first half and the second half of this scripture is translated as different two
texts in the Tibetan canon (PaA Tib and PaAMaKaKha T ib). The first half corresponds
to Chapters 1-13 and the second half to Chapters 14-25 of the Chinese trans-
lation (MATSUNAGA 1998: 199). A ritual manual called bDe ba chen po rdo rje
gsah ba'i rtog pa'i rgyal po chen po is inserted in the beginning of the latter half
(PaAMaKaKha T ib, PaA ch.14) (Matsunaga 1998: 214). The part quoted below is
included in the latter half.
17 ci I PD; j isTog
18 skus ]] conj. sku sTog P D
19 yah na 'gog paJPDyare 'gog pa yah sTog
20 bde ba de I sTog; de ba P D
21 bsten pa I P D; brtenpa sTog
22 gyis ]] sTog bya P D
23 'dodpa . . . mchod par gyis ]] This verse is identical with GuSaTa 7.2 quoted above.
24 bya ba'o ]] sTog D; bya'o P
25 thams cad I sTog; thams cad kyi P D
26 thegpa chenpo'i^ sTog; thegpa chen po'i yah dag par rdzogs pa'i by ah chub thegpa
chen po'i yah chen po'i P D
27 zes bya'o ]] sTog; zes bya ba'o P D
28 rjes su sgrub pa de ]] sTog; rjes su sgrub pa P D
29 mi zad pas sTog P; mi bzad pas D
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
de phyir ci 'dod la spyod pa || kun za de 30 bzin thams cad byed ||
ci 'dod by a ba la spyod pa || ci 'dod par ni spyod pa spyod ||
gah dan gah du 'chagpa dan || dgodpa 'am ni smra ba 'am 31 ||
gah yah de ruhji bzin te 32 || dkyil 'khor du ni ma zugs sam 33 ||
sgrib pa mams dan Idan pa 'am || rah gi lha yi rnal 'byor bdag ||
tshig gis kyah ni de bzin 'gyur || de hid rnal 'byor 'diyis ni ||
thams cad hid ni bsgrub pa by a || nan 34, spyod sdig pa thams cad kyis ||
mam pa kun tu gnod mi 'gyur \\ 'dod pa chenpo kun bdag hid ||
dbah phyug dam pa 'grub par 'gyur || thams cad rdo rje 'dzin rgyal po ||
kun mchog 35 dbah phyug dampa'o \\
sans rgyas byah chub semas dpa' hid \\
rnal 'byor 'diyis rhed sla na \\ dhos grub mams dan las mchog gi \\
tshogs mams gzan Ita smos ci dgos || don yod mchog tu grub pa dan ||
phyag rgya thams cad rjes sgrub byed ||
dpal Idan sdug bshal kun 'phyog pa'i \\ rnal 'byor 'di ni mi 'gyur mchog \\
ces bya ba mchog tu yid 3e bde ba beam Idan 'das rdo rje sems dpas gsuhs so ||
(sTog f£136r5-137r3, P ff.252r7-253rl, D ff.242r7-243r2)
(Trsl.) [Question:] In this case, how all seals and yoga can be accomplished?
[Vajrasattva answers:]
Because the seals are stable by the body, they also become stable by com-
fort (*sukha, bde ba), and unstable by pain (*duhkha, sdug bshal) [like
the body]. They are also destroyed [by pain]. They arise from the mind in
contemplation (yoga), and are accomplished by comfortable mind. They
become unstable or even annihilated by uncomfortable mind. Therefore,
[a practitioner] should accomplish the seals and the contemplation very
carefully ('dod pa thams cad kis). The [seals and the contemplation] are
accomplished neither by practices difficult to perform nor by observance
(*niyama, hes pa). [They are accomplished] by comfort [of the body] and
joy [of the mind].
Thus the very esoteric [teaching] has been given by the Blessed One, Vajrasattva.
30 <ieIsTogD;6deP
31 This short line is reminiscent of the unmattavrata (the Observance of the Madman).
Cf. GuSi 5.18: kvacid dhasan kvacij jalpan kvacid geyam tu karayet \ kvacin nrtyan
kvacit sphotan kvacin nanarutani tu \\ (Sed P-40, 11.15—16) For the unmattvrata see
TANEMURA forthcoming.
32 gah yah de run zi bzin te ]] sTog; gah dan de ru ci bzin de P;gah dan de ru ji bzin de
D
33 sa/nl] P B;pa sTog
34 nan J\ sTog D; rah P
35 mchog ]] sTog D; mchod P
36 yidl sTog D;yinbaP
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
[Question:] In this case, what is the comfort that accomplishes the yoga of all
observances? [Vajrasattva answers:]
[A practitioner] should worship himself and others with enjoyment of all
desires he experiences by the yoga of his chosen deity at his will.
The yoga of the highest Mahayana which is the most esoteric [teaching] of all
Tathagatas is the best comfort of the Blessed One, Vajrasattva. [Question:] In
this case, what is the accomplishment of the yoga of all observances? [The Blessed
One answers:]
[The body of a practitioner] is soon weakened by wrong practices which
are difficult to perform, severe and painful. The mind of [a practitioner]
becomes distracted by the pain, and it cannot engage itself in yoga.
He should therefore act as he wishes, eat everything as food, do actions
as he wishes, and perform [the post-initiatory] practice (*carya, spyodpa)
as he wishes.
He should wander about in every place. He should laugh or speak [mean-
inglessly]. Not entering a mandala, whatever it may be, or committing
sins, he should have the yoga of his chosen deity as his nature.
[As the physical actions mentioned above,] he should do so with regard to
speech (= verbal actions). By this very yoga, everything should indeed be
accomplished.
He is not damaged by any wrong practice and sinful [action] by any
means. Having all great desires as his nature, he will attain the
supreme sovereignty. The eminent, supreme sovereign is the king of all
vajra -holders. If being a Buddha and a Bodhisattva is easy to be attained
by this yoga, how much more words do you say about [various lower]
accomplishments and excellent actions? He accomplishes supreme,
efficacious siddhi (*amoghaparamasiddhi, don yod mchog tu grub pa)
and all seals. This auspicious yoga which removes all pains is the
supreme, unchangeable one.
Thus the Blessed One, Vajrasattva has taught the supreme, comfortable mind.
In the above quotation, first Vajrasattva teaches the following, answering the
question "how all seals and yoga can be accomplished?" Since the seals stable by
the body, they become stable by comfort and unstable by pain just like the body
They also arise from the mind in contemplation (yoga), so they are accomplished
by comfortable mind. The seals and yoga are accomplished neither by actions
difficult to do nor by observance. They are accomplished by comfort of the body
and by joy of the mind. Secondly answering the question "what is the comfort to
accomplish the yoga of all observances," Vajrasattva teaches that a practitioner
should worship himself and others with enjoyment of all desires he experiences
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
by the yoga of his chosen deity at his will. This is the same verse as GuSaTa
7.2. Thirdly, Vajrasattva teaches practice of the yoga of all observances (dam
tshig thams cad rnal 'byor). Practice of yoga is impossible if a practitioner tor-
ments his body, since such body -tormenting practices cause distraction of mind.
He should act as he wishes. Having all great desires as his nature, he attains
the supreme sovereign, i.e. the state of King of Vajradhara. This is called the
supreme, comfortable mind.
The verse which the CaMePra "quotes" from the PaA is not found in the PaA
itself, but Tattvasiddhi (TaSi) attributed to Santaraksita also "quote" it from the
PaA.
TaSi: tathd coktam srlparamddye —
atma vai sarvabuddhatvam sarvasauritvam eva ca |
svddhidaivatayogena tasmad atmaiva sadhayet 37 ||
duskarair niyamais tlvrair murtih susyati duhkhitd
duhkhdd *viksepyate cittam viksepdt siddhir anyathd ||
manomurtidrdhatvdc ca sarvasaukhyam drdhlbhavet |
duhkhais calanam ayati nirodhas cdpi gacchati ||
(MS f.40r6-8)
(Trsl.) In the same way, the Sriparamddya also teaches as follows:
It is [a practitioner] himself who is all Buddhas and all heroes(?). He
should therefore accomplish himself 38 by the yoga of his chosen deity.
By practising asceticism and keeping endurable observance, his body is
pained and [therefore] weakened. If [the body] is pained, the mind be-
comes distracted. If the mind is distracted, the accomplishment is not
realised. By comfort of the mind and the body, all comfort becomes sta-
ble. [On the other hand,] it becomes unstable (calanam ayati) and also
annihilated (nirodhas cdpi gacchati) by the pain.
The same set of verses is found also in Nagarjuna's commentary on the GuSaTa
with some variants.
37 This verse is found in the Sarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvaratantra (SaBu-
SaYoDaJaSamTa). See SaBuSaYoDaJaSamTa: bdag nid sans rgyas thams cad dan
|| dpa' bo thams cad bdag yin no || de bas bdag nid lhar sbyor bas || bdag hid rab
tu bsgrub par bya \\ (sTog f.242r4-5, P £165r6, D f,152r7) The CaMePra quotes this
verse mentioning the SaBuSaYoDaJaSamTa as the source. CaMePra ch.2: srisa-
rvabuddhasamdgamayogaddkinijdlasamvaramahdyogatantre 'pimam artham dyo-
tayan aha — na yogah pratibimbesu nisiktddisu jdyate | bodhicittamahdyogdd yogi-
nas tena devatdh || atma vai sarvabuddhatvam sattvasauritvam eva ca \ svadhidai-
vatayogena tasmad atmaiva sadhayet || iti. (W ED p.365, 1.16-p.366, 1.4, S E d p. 19,11.1-
6)
38 Perhaps atmaiva should be understood as atma (neuter accusative) + eva rather
than atma + eva. Judging from the context, dtman should be the object of the verb
sadhayet.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
NaGuSaTaTaTi ad GuSaTa 7.3: de bzin du dpal mchog dan po las kyah \
bdag ni sans rgyas thams cad hid || sans rgyas kyi sras hid de bzin 39 ||
rah gi lha yi sbyor ba yis || de pyir bdag hid bsgrub par bya ||
dka' thub sdompa mi zad pas 40 || lus ni sdug bshal Idan bskams 'gyur ||
sdug bshal gyis ni sems g-yehs pas || g-yehs pas dhos grub thob mi 'gyur ||
yid dan lus dag brtan pa'i phyir || rah gi bde bas brtan par 'gyur ||
sdug bshal gyis ni g-yo 'gyur dan || 'gal ba yah ni thob par 'gyur ||
zes 'byuh ho || (P £124v6-8, D f.l04r3-4)
(Trsl.) In the same way the Sriparamadya also teaches as follows:
It is [a practitioner] himself who is all Buddhas and a son of Buddha.
He should therefore accomplish himself by the yoga of his chosen deity.
By practising asceticism and keeping endurable observance, his body is
pained and [therefore] weakened. If [the body] is pained, the mind be-
comes distracted. If the mind is distracted, the accomplishment is not
realised. Because of stability of the mind and the body, comfort of him-
self becomes stable. [On the other hand,] it becomes unstable and also
destructed by the pain.
Perhaps this set of verses is a versified summary of the passages of the PaA
quoted above, and might have been circulated as a "quotation from the PaA" from
a certain period. Alternatively, this could be a quotation from another version of
the PaA which is no more accessible. The Acaryakriyasamuccaya (AKriSa) also
states that it is a quotation from the PaA. 41 Considering the fact that the AKriSa
draws upon other texts including the CaMePra, this verse is probably not a direct
quotation from the PaA, but an indirect quotation from the CaMePra. 42
The relevant verse is also quoted in two other texts. In his commen-
tary Yogimanohara (YoMaPaKraTi), a tippani on the Pancakrama (PaKra),
Munisribhadra gives a teaching that body-tormenting practices prevent a
practitioner from attaining the accomplishment, quoting the relevant verse. But
he mentions the source of the verse as "another tantra." 43 In his Marmakalikd
39 de bzin J\ D; de bzin hid P
40 mi zad pas's D; mi bzad pas P
41
AKriSa: paramadyamahayogatantre ca — duskarair niyamais *tivrair (M ED ; tivai
MS S) murtih *susyate (M ED ; suvyate MS S) duhkhita | *duhkhad viksipyate (M ED ;
duhkhita hi ksipyate MS S) cittam viksepat siddhir anyatha || (MS S f.3r5-6, M E d
p. 76, 11.8-9)
42 The relevant verse is quoted in the AKriSa in the context that a tantric master (guru
or acarya) is superior to a traditional bhiksu. Just before this verse, a passage of the
CaMePra which has been quoted in the following part of this article of the CaMePra
is also quoted.
43 See YoMaPaKraTi ad PiKraSa 4: tasmad evam avagamya *duhkhitam na (em.
T ED ; duhkhetan MS) kuryac cittarajam yogi, tarhi katham ity aha, pahcakamo*pa-
bhogenenaiva (em. T ED ; 'pabhogeneva MS) sukhena bodhim buddhatvam sadhayet.
-495-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
(MaKa), a panjika on the Tattvajnanasamsiddhi of Sunyasamadhivajra, the
author Viryasrimitra mentions the Vajraddkatantra (VaDaTa) as the source of
the same verse. 44 Abhayakaragupta also quotes the same verse in his Abhaya-
paddhati (APa), a commentary on the Buddhakapdlatantra (BuKaTa), without
mentioning the name of the source. 45 These facts may imply the fact that the
relevant verse was not found in the PaA itself and the authors had found it in
other sources. Especially in the case of the YoMaPaKraTi, it is highly possible
that the author was able to access the CaMePra, which is closely related to the
PaKra, and that he could not find the Paramddya verse quoted in the CaMePra
in the tantra itself.
The VAN mentions the twelve dhutagunas as representative of the body-
tormenting practices which should be excluded by a tantric practitioner. The
CaMePra teaches that the ascetic practices such as the twelve dhutagunas
are for those whose religious convictions are inferior (hinadhimukti) such as
sravakas.
CaMePra Ch.9: vitardgarupam abhinirmdya hinddhimuktikdndm caturdryasa-
kutah? yogatantrdnusdratah. yogatantram *srisamdjatantram (em.; srlsamdjam
tantram T ED ), tadanusdratah, tadarthddhigamatah. uktam ca Hantrdntare (em.
T ED ; tantrdnte MS) — duskarair niyamais tivrair murtih susyati duhkhita \ duhkhd-
d *viksipyate (em. T ED ; viksipyatai MS) cittam viksepat siddhir anyatha || iti. (T ED
p. 8, 11.16-25) (Trsl.) 'Therefore, having thus understood, a yoga practitioner should
not torment his cittardja. If so, how [could he attain enlightenment]? It is taught
that he should attain enlightenment, i.e. Buddhahood, comfortably, i.e. enjoying the
five desired objects agreeable to the sense faculties. Based on what? Based on [the
teachings] of the Yogatantra. The Yogatantra is the auspicious Guhyasamdjatantra.
Based on this means based on the understanding of the meaning of the tantra. This
has been taught in another tantra also. "By practising asceticism and keeping en-
durable observance, the body [of a practitioner] is pained and [therefore] weakened.
If [the body] is pained, the mind becomes distracted. If the mind is distracted, the
accomplishment is not realised." '
44 tasmdt sukhacittdyattaiva susiddhir iti sthitam. vajraddke ca — "duskarair niya-
mais tivrair murtih susyati duhkhita | duhkhad viksipyate cittam viksepat siddhir
anyatha \\ (S ED p.16, 1.22 - p. 17, 1.2) (Trsl.) 'Therefore, it has been established that
excellent accomplishment is brought by comfortable mind. [This has been taught]
in the Vajraddkatantra also. "By practising asceticism and keeping endurable ob-
servance, the body [of a practitioner] is pained and [therefore] weakened. If [the
body] is pained, the mind becomes distracted. If the mind is distracted, the accom-
plishment is not realised." ' See also VaDaTa ch.l: duskarair niyamais tivrai(r)
murtih susyati duhkhita \ duhkhad viksipyate cittam viksepat siddhir anyatha \\
(MS£4r2-3)
45 See APa ad BuKaTa ch.l: duskarair niyamais tivrai(r) murtih susyati duhkhita \
duhkhad viksipyate cittam viksepat siddhir anyatha \\ (MS f.2v4)
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
tyddhigamam virdgacarydm ca pratipddya i6 yathd 41 srdvakddayo hlnd-
dhimuktikd vitarkdcaritd dtmasddhanarahitd 48 ddnasilddikriydmdrgdrudhds
tattvajndne 'sraddhadhdnd mokse 49 durasamjninah sukhopdyam anadhigamya
dvddasadhutagunddiduskaracarydbhis cirakdlena bodhim anvesayanti, tathdpi
na prdpnuvanti, nispannakramddhigamarahitatvdt. (W ED p. 461, 1.14— p. 462, 1.11;
S ED p.78, 11.3-12)
(Trsl.) 50 [The Blessed One] created himself one who was free from passion and
taught the understanding of the four noble truths and the passion-free perfor-
mance Those whose religious convictions are inferior, such as srdvakas,
practice based on speculation, do not have the method of the accomplishment
of himself, and are on the path of the external actions such as donation and
moral precepts. They are not faithful to the knowledge of the truth. They mis-
understand the liberation to be far away, and long for the enlightenment after
a long-time practice of endurable performance such as the twelve dhutagunas.
Even so, they do not attain [the enlightenment]. For they do not understand the
nispannakrama -practice.
As examined above, the negative attitude towards body-tormenting practices
is taught in the PaA, the CaMePra and other related texts. The CaMePra also
teaches that the traditional asceticism is the practice for people whose religious
convictions are inferior such as Sravakayanists. Probably these teachings lie
behind Jnanasri's argument.
3 The tantric practice excludes the practice which causes
distraction of mind 51
The second reason why the tantric practice is superior to that of non-tantric Bud-
dhism is that it excludes practices which cause distraction of mind. Jnanasri's
argument is as follows. The main cause of the accomplishment, i.e. attainment
of enlightenment, is mind. A practitioner should, therefore, give priority to con-
trolling his mind. If a practitioner of uncontrolled mind does external, physical
and verbal practices such as worship of caityas and recitation of scriptures, his
mind is distracted. There are two alternatives with regard to the way of practice.
First, a practitioner should abide in a comfortable situation, attain the profound
46 yatha . . . 'rahitatvat ]] Quoted in the acaryalaksanavidhi of the AcKriSa. (MS S
f.3rl-3, M ED p.74, 11.22-26)
47 yathd ]] MS W ED S ED ;yatah AKriSa M ED
48 vitarkdcaritd dtmasddhanarahitd T\ W ED ; vitarkdcaritdtmasddhanarahitd MS S ED .
Testimonium: AcKriSa
49 mokseTi W ED ; moksa' MS S E d. Cf. Alokamdld 14: durasamjni bhaven mokse na
kathamcana yogavit | sunyah kalpitariipena drstah svdtmani nirvrtih ||
50 See also Wedemeyer 2008: 281.9-283.12.
51 VAN P £131v2-132r2, D f.H8vr-119v4
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
meditation on mind (*cittanidhyapti, sems la dmigs pa), 52 and acquire power to
remove gloss defilement. After that, he should do external practices as men-
tioned above. Secondly, a practitioner who is satisfied only with meditation need
not do any external practice. 53 These two alternatives are the practice without
elaboration (nisprapancacarya) and the practice absolutely free from elaboration
52 For cittanidhyapti as a probable Sanskrit original word see PaKra 1.6 (T ED p.l)
53 Jnasri quotes verses from the Vairocanabhisambodhi (VaiAbhiTa) as a scriptural
support of his argument. VAN: mtshan mar bcas pas mtshan bcas kyi || dhos grub
rgyal ba dam pa bzed || mtshan ma med la gnas pa ni || mtshan mar bcas pa'ah
grub tu run || de bas mam pa thams cad du || mtshan ma med la gnas par bya
|| (P f.l91v6-7, D ff.H8v7-119rl) (Trsl.) 'The supreme victorious one holds that
the accomplishment with forms [is attained] by that[, i.e. the body of deity] with
forms. [A practitioner] who abides in[, i.e. meditates upon] that [body of deity]
without forms is suitable for that [accomplishment] with forms too. Therefore, he
should abide in that [body of deity] without forms in all cases.' These verses of
the VaiAbhiTa are also quoted in the PraUd. There are some textual problems.
The relevant part of the VaiAbhiTa quoted in the PraUd is two verses, which run
as follows: sanimittena sanimitta siddhir upajdyate | animittena animitta siddhir
ista jinavaraih \\ sada animittena sthitva vai sanimittam prasadhyate \ tasmat sar-
vaprakarena nirnimittam nisevyate || (nisevyate D em.; nisedhyata (iti) C ED ; nisevyate
MATSUNAGA 1998: 181.6) (C ED p.119, 11.25-27) The VAN, on the other hand, quotes
one and a half verses, which might be reconstructed as sanimittena sanimitta sid-
dhir ista jinavaraih | sada animitte sthitva vai sanimittam prasadhyate | tasmat
sarvaprakarena nirnimittam nisevyate ||
Comparing the two quotations, there might be a haplographical error caused by
the eye skip from the first siddhir to the second siddhir in the latter. The aksaras
sa and a are also similar to each other, and this also could be the cause of the eye
skip.
The reading of the relevant part of the scripture itself is almost the same as that
in the VAN. See VaiAbhiTa T ib ch.7: mtshan mar bcas pas mtshan bcas kyi || dnos
grub rgyal ba dam pa bzed || mtshan ma med la gnas pas ni || mtshan ma can yah
bsgrub tu run || da bas mam pa thams cad du || mtshan ma med pa bsten par bya ||
(sTog f.l61r7-v2, P f.l54v2-3, D f.l90r3-4) It is more problematic that the reading
of the Chinese translation of the VaAbhiTa is different from the other two:
(Taisho vol.18, 44a23-28)
This might be reconstructed as sanimittena sanimitta siddhir ista jinavaraih || sada
animitte sthitva vai animittam prasadhyate | tasmat sarvaprakarena nirnimittam
nisevyate ||
The intention of the quotation of the VaiAbhTa is, roughly speaking, to demon-
strate that the higher level of practice brings not only the outcome corresponding to
that level but the outcome of the lower level of practice. This means that the read-
ings of the Sanskrit quoted in the PraUd and of the Tibetan translation suit the
context of the VAN. For this textual problem, see also Matsunaga 1980: 180-182.
With regard to the passage quoted immediately after the verses of the VaiAb-
hiTa for the same purpose, Jfianasri mentions the Satyadvayavibhahgavrtti as the
source. But the relevant passage is not found in the Satyadvayavibhahgavrtti but
in the Satyadvayavibhahgapahjikd. See VAN: slob dpon ye ses shin pos kyah bden
pa ghis mam par 'byed pa'i grel pa las | chos kyi dbyihs rtogs na jig rten dan jig
rten las 'das pa'i chos thams cad bos pa bzin du 'du ste | zad pa ses la zag bcas kyah
|| (P f.l31v7-8, D f.H9rl-2)
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
(atyantanisprapancacarya), which are taught only in the Mahayogatantra. 54
The three kinds of practice, i.e. the practice with elaboration (prapanca-
carya), the practice without elaboration, and the practice absolutely free from
elaboration, are probably introduced first in the CaMePra and are mentioned in
other texts belonging to the Guhyasamaja corpus. Let us look at the definition of
the three kinds of practice given in the CaMePra ch.9:
CaMePra ch.9: tatra ragajabodhicarya trividhd yad uta prapahcatd nisprapa-
hcatdtyantanisprapahcatd ceti. tatra 55 prapahcatd caryd katamd? yad uta ta-
thdgatdsvdse vajradhardsvdse ca yathdnirdistam 56 sarvatathdgatdrallivistarah
sd prapahcatd. nisprapahcatd katamd'? satatam 51 vydpikdryavasdt kvacid evd-
rallih 5S sydt sd 59 nisprapahcatd. atyantanisprapahcatd katamd'? sarvasahgam
apahdya kevalam 60 dhydndhdravihdrl jhdnamudrdsamdpattydbhyaset sdtyanta-
nisprapahcatd. yathd kdstham dahati bhavati bhutih, tdlapatram dahati bhavati
bhutih, kdrpdsam dahati bhavati bhutih, sarvam bhasmasdd bhavati, evam eva
trividhacarydbhir 61 mahdvajradharapadam 62 nispddayanti. athavd 63 kecit sd-
dhakds tattvasamgrahdditantrdnusdrino 64 hastamudrdgltopahdrdksepdbhinaya-
natanartanddi 65 prayogair nityam udyuktamanaso 66 'harnisam prapahcacarya-
yd mahdmudrdsiddhim sddhayanti. tathd kecic chriparamddyddimahdyogata-
ntram dsritya paryahkdsanabandhananavandtyarasddisarvatathdgatakrlddpra-
pahcacaryayd mahdsukhapadam dvdhayanti. asmih sriguhyasamdje tu kevalam
nisprapahcatdtyantanisprapahcatd 61 caryd ca nirdistd
(W ED p.465, 1.15-p.466, 1.10; S ED p.81, 1.8-p.82, 1.2)
(Trsl.) 68 In this case, the practices for enlightenment based on passion
(ragajabodhicarya) are of three kinds, namely, [the practice] with elabo-
54 The same statement is made in the CaMePra. See the definition of the three kinds
of practice in the CaMePra ch.9 quoted below.
55 tatraH MS W ED S ED ; tatra prathamam MS C of W ED
56 yathdnirdistam ]] em.; yathd nirdistam W ED S ED
57 satatam'S MS S ED ; satata' W ED
58 kvacid evdrallih I em.; kacid vdrallih MS; kvacid vdrallih W ED ; kecid vdrallih S ED
59 sal W ED ;n.e. MS S ED
60 kevalam I em.; kevala" MS W ED S ED
61 trividhacarydbhir! MS W ED ; trividhacaryddibhir S ED
62 mahdvajradharapadam! W ED (see also Wedemeyer 2002: 188, footnote
16); mahdvajrapadam MS S ED - Cf. CaMePra ch.ll (chapter on the
atyantanisprapancacarya): mahdvajradharapadam nispddaydmiti (W ED p. 489,
1.10; S ED p.97, 1.16)
63 athavd I MS S ED ; atha W ED
64 'tantrdnusdrino'S W ED S ED (emendation); tantrdnusdrind MS
65 °nartanddi° T\ W ED ; nartakddi MS S ED
66 udyuktamanaso! W ED ; udyuktamanaso MS S E d
67 nisprapahcatdtdtyantanisprapahcatd! W ED ; nisprapahcatd, atyantanisprapahca"
MSS ED
68 See also Wedemeyer 2007: 289-291.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
ration, without elaboration, and the practice absolutely free from elabo-
ration. Of these three (tatra), which practice is with elaboration? If [a
practitioner] fully experiences the sensual enjoyment of all tathdgatas as
instructed in the tathdgatdsvdsa and the vajradhardsvdsa [of the Sarvabud-
dhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvaratantra], 89 then that is [the practice] with the
elaboration. Which [practice] is without elaboration? If the sensual enjoyment is
only occasional by the constantly all-pervading effects, then that is [the practice]
without elaboration. Which [practice] is absolutely free from elaboration? If [a
practitioner] abandons all attachments, lives on the food that is meditation, and
repeats union with his imaginary consort, then that is [the practice] absolutely
free from elaboration. Just as wood burns to ashes, a palmyra leaf burns to ashes,
cotton burns to ashes, and everything burns to ashes, likewise [practitioners]
accomplish the stage of Vajradhara by means of the three kinds of practice.
Alternatively, some practitioners who follow [the teachings of the Yogatantra]
beginning with the Tattvasamgraha employ [external actions] such as hand-
gestures, songs, offerings [to deities], throwing away [of obstacles], 70 gestures, 71
and dances (? natanartana"), always with mind of industry, and accomplish the
Great Seal doing the practice with elaboration day and night. In the same way,
some [practitioners] accomplish the stage of the Great Bliss by the practice with
elaboration, i.e. the play of all tathdgatas such as sitting in [particular] postures
called paryahka and dsana (paryahkdsanabandhana), and the nine ndtyarasas 72 ,
based on the Mahayogatantras such as Sriparamddya. The practice without
elaboration and absolutely free from elaboration is, however, taught only in this
Srlguhyasamdja .
If we refer to the definitions of the three kinds of practice given in the above
passage from the CaMePra, the criteria of the classification are the degrees of
sensual enjoyment (aralli) and the degrees of dependence on meditation. If,
in addition, we refer to the details of the three kinds of practice taught after
the above-quoted passage, the degree of asceticism is high in the practice ab-
solutely free from elaboration. 73 If we compare the two alternatives of practice
69 See Wedemeyer 2007: 289, footnote 78.
70 Aksepas are particular actions which a tantric officiant does in order to remove
obstacles from the site for a mandala in its construction. Tanaka 2004 reports on
the aksepas taught in Nagabodhi's Guhyasamdjamandalopdyikdvimsatividhi and
other texts. For the aksepas taught in the Kriydsamgrahapanjikd see Tanemura
2004: 34.
71 Abhinayas are particular gestures which a tantric officiant makes in order to re-
move obstacles from the site for a mandala in its construction. For the abhinayas
taught in the Kridsamgrahapanjikd see TANEMURA 2004: 31-33. See also Tanaka
2004.
72 For the nine rasas in the SaBuDaJaSamTa see Tanaka 1989, 1994.
73 In this sense, the Observance of Madman (unmattavrata) and the bhusukucaryd
are incorporated into the practice absolutely free from elaboration.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
which Jfianasri mentions with regard to the practice without elaboration and
the practice absolutely free from elaboration, the contents of the VAN and the
CaMePra are identical with each other in the respect that these practices are
dependent solely upon meditation. With regard to the practice without elabora-
tion, Jfianasri does not mention sensual enjoyment. If, however, we examine the
contents of the practice without elaboration taught in the CaMePra chapter 10,
we can find some elements common to the VAN.
CaMePra ch.10: vajragurur aha - sadhu sadhu mahasattva sriguhyasamajama-
hayogatantramnayena nisprapahcacaryam pratipadayami srnv ekagracittena.
mahatavipradesesu phalapuspadyalahkrte |
parvate vijane sadhyam idam dhyanasamuccayam ||
(GuSaTa 12.2)
ityaditantrokte manonukulapradese bhumigrham va prasadam va yathokta-
vidhina samskrtya, tatra caturasradigunayuktam vajramanisikharakutagdram
nispadya, tatah prakrtahahkarapagato 74 mahayogi bahyanganam api sa-
mskrtya ekajatipratibaddhakaih saha sisyaganair vaksyamanakramena
mahamudrasadhanam arabheta 15 .
tatha ca na mudrabandho na mandalarn na kundam na caityam na pu-
stakavacanam na kayakleso napatakasthapasanapratimampranamati.
na sravakapratyekabuddhasaranam anusmarati. na tithikaranamuhu-
rtanaksatrakalaksepanam karoti. sarvam etad adhyatmanaiva sampa-
dayati. 16 (W ED p.481, 1.5-p.483, 1.7; S ED p.94, 1.4-p.92.14)
(Trsl.) 77 The vajra master answered, "Excellent, excellent, Great One! I shall
teach you the practice without elaboration according to the tradition of the
Mahayogatantra, Sriguhyasamdja. Listen very carefully.
The following meditations should be accomplished in spots inside great
forests, in a spot decorated with fruits, flowers etc., in a mountain, or in
an isolated spot.
74 prakrtahahkarapagato ]] W ED ; [prajkrtahahkarapagato MS; prakrtahahkarapagato
Sed
75 arabheta^ MS S ED ; arabhet W ED (W ED reports that the reading of the MS is arabhet,
but actually it is arabheta.)
76 tatha ca .. . sampddayati ]] Quoted in the SuSam (Part II, p. 54, 11.23-28) For the
passages of the CaMePra quoted in the SuSam see Matsumori 2008: 930-929,
note 5. The teaching of this part is very similar to the verse which Jfianasri quotes
as a scriptural support. See VAN: gal te byah chub mchog 'dod na || glegs bam klag
par mi bya zih || mchod rten bskor ba mi bya'o || byas na byah chub riied par dka' ||
(P f.l31v2-3, D f.H8v4-5) Cf. GuSaTa 17.67 quoted below.
77 See also Wedemeyer 2007: 307-310.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
[A practitioner] should make a cellar or a raised platform in comfortable spots
as taught in the above verse and other [places] of the tantra. He should visualise
the storied palace which has the characteristics such as the square [form], on the
top of the vajra-gem mountain. Then the great yoga practitioner should abandon
his ordinary ego, and also purify his external consort. Then he should under-
take the method for accomplishment of the Great Seal together with his disciples
connected with one jdti.
In the same way, he does not fold his hand in a seal. He does not make a
mandala. He does not do a fire sacrifice. He does not make [or worship]
an caitya. He does not recite a scripture. He does not torment his body.
He does not worship an image [painted on] a scroll, or made of wood or
stone. He should not remember refuge in Sravakas and Pratyakebud-
dhas. He is not distracted by [auspiciousness and inauspiciousness of]
time [based on] the lunar day, the karana, the muhurta and the lunar
mansion. He performs all of these only internally.
The elements common to Jnanasri's teaching about the practice without elabora-
tion and the above quotation are the following two. (1) Jnanasri teaches that in
the practice without elaboration a practitioner should first abide in comfortable
situation. The CaMePra also teaches that in the practice without elaboration
a practitioner should prepare a spot for meditation in a comfortable place. (2)
While the internalisation of practices is required, external elements are involved
in both the practice without elaboration taught by Jnanasri and that taught
in the CaMePra. Jnanasri teaches that a practitioner should observe his mind
properly and attain the profound meditation on mind, and then do other exter-
nal practices. In the CaMePra, while external elements such as a practitioner's
external consort (bahydngana) are involved, a practitioner should internalise ex-
ternal physical and verbal practices. With regard to the second point, there is big
difference between Jnanasri and the CaMePra. The procedure of Jnanasri's prac-
tice without elaboration is that the profound meditation on mind is attained first
and then external practices are done. In the CaMePra, on the other hand, ex-
ternal physical and verbal practices are internalised although external elements
are involved. It is therefore difficult to say that the practice without elaboration
taught by Jnanasri is directly based on that taught in the CaMePra.
Then what is the background for the abandonment of external actions and
mind-oriented attitude found in the VAN? The negative attitude towards exter-
nal practices is found in several places of the later tantric Buddhist texts. The
same verse as Jnanasri quotes as a scriptural support of his position has not
been found, but similar teachings are found in the GuSaTa.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
GuSaTa 17.67 caityakarma na kurvita na ca pustakavacanam \
mandalam naiva kurvita na trivajragravandanam ||
(M ED p. 107, 11.24-25)
(Trsl.) [A practitioner] should neither worship caityas, nor recite scriptures, nor
make a mandala, nor make obeisance to the three foremost vajras.
PraUd ad loc: caityakarma mrdvalukadistupapujakriyam na kurvita. atmana
eva sarvatathagatdtmakasya caityapujabhinivesayogat. na ca pustakavacanam
ity anabhogenaiva vajrajapam satatam eva pravartayatah asmin svadhyayadau
pravrtter na yuktatvat. evam bahyam mandalam tan na kurvita. svakayama-
ndalam 7a muktva bahirmandalasya tattvato 'bhavat. trivajragrah sravakapra-
tyekabuddhasamyaksambuddhah tesam kayadina prasamanam vandanam tan
na kuryat. atmanah sarvatathagatabhavasya virodhat. (C ED p. 220, 11.25-28)
(Trsl.) [A tantric practitioner] should not do religious actions for caityas, i.e. wor-
ship of stupas made of mud or sand. For it is not appropriate for him who has all
Tathagatas as his nature to have an attachment to worship of caityas. He should
not recite scriptures. For it is not appropriate for him who always performs the
ua/ra-recitation without effort to read scriptures for his study or other [purposes]
(svadhyayadau pravrtteh). In the same way, he should not make an external
mandala. For, except his own body that is the mandala, an external mandala
does not exist in reality. The three foremost vajras are Sravakas, Pratyekabud-
dhas, and Samyaksambuddhas. He should not take refuge to them, i.e. make
homage to them with his body etc. For [this action] is contradictory with [the fact
that the practitioner] himself is in the state of all Tathagatas.
The Guhyasiddhi (GuSi), one of the oldest texts that belong to the
Guhyasamaja corpus, teaches abandonment of external practices in the post-
initiatory period. 79
GuSi 6.49cd-51:
mandalam naiva kartavyam mudrabandhas tu bandhanam \\
mantram naiva japen mantri bhavanayantarayikam 80 |
deham mandalam ity uktam prajna mudreti kirtita \\
mantri srivajrasattvatma vandanam tasya sevanam |
etad adhyatmikam kuryat sarvam bahyam tyajed budhah ||
(S ED p.43, 11.12-16)
(Trsl.) The mantra-practitioner should not make a mandala, and fold his hand
in a seal. He should not utter a mantra which impedes contemplation. For it
is taught that his body is the mandala and that his consort (prajna) is the seal.
Since the mantra-practitioner has Vajrasattva as his nature, paying homage to
78 svakayamandalamU em.; svakayamandala C ED
79 See also Tanemura 2008: 55-58.
80 bhavanayantarayikam B Double samdhi is applied here.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
himself is worship [in this case]. So, the wise man should internalise everything,
abandoning external things.
Jfianasrl does not clearly state theoretical basis of the internalisation of ex-
ternal practices. If we refer to the above descriptions in the PraUd and the
GuSi, we learn that it is the equation of parts of a practitioner's body with
deities. In the case of the PraUd, the physical practices should be abandoned
because a practitioner has all Tathagatas as his nature, and the verbal practice
should be abandoned because a practitioner has attained the ua/ra-recitation, in
which all his verbal actions are equated with recitation of mantras. In the case
of the GuSi, the theoretical basis of the internalisation is that a practitioner's
body is the mandala, his consort is wisdom, and he has Vajrasattva as his na-
ture. The CaMePra teaches the processes of realisation of this equation as the
body-isolation (kdyaviveka) and the speech-isolation (vdgviveka). In the former
a practitioner realises that his body-elements are empowered or controlled by
the deities, and in the latter he realises that his verbal actions are recitation of
mantras. 81
4 The tantric practice excludes practices which cause a
practitioner to grasp things as existent 82
The third reason why the tantric practice is superior is that it prevents a practi-
tioner from grasping things as existent. Jnanasri's argument is as follows. The
conceptions such as "this is pure" and "this is impure" are bondage. If a prac-
titioner consumes the five nectars, i.e. semen, blood, excrement, urine, and the
meat of human being, and the five meats, i.e. the meat of cow, dog, elephant,
horse, and human being, in proper method, conceptual cognition of purity and
impurity gradually ceases to arise. The proper method is to consume the im-
pure substances desirelessly after meditating upon them as empty or the nectar
of deities. When the conceptual cognition ceases to arise, the ascertaining cog-
nition arises that the conception of difference with regard to all things is false.
At this moment, some non-human beings rejoice at the practitioner, guard him,
and hold his instruction. The five nectars and the five meats are synecdoche for
anything supposed to be impure. When the practitioner attains the cognition of
equality, he does not have to consume the impure substances.
In this part of the text, Jnanasri justifies consumption of impure substances
in the tantric practice. Consumption of impure substances is one of the obser-
81 For the body-isolation and the speech-isolation see Tomabechi 1996: 263-266,
note 409. See also Wedemeyer 2007: 84-95 (summaries of chapters on the body-
isolation and the speech-isolation).
82 VANPf.l32r2-7, Df.ll9r4-vl
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
varices clearly taught in tantric Buddhism after the GuSaTa. As stated above,
the five nectars are the five kinds of impure substances, i.e. semen, blood, ex-
crement, urine and the meat of human being. See, e.g., LaSamTa 1.1 led and
CaSamPa ad loc:
LaSamTa l.llcd: madhu raktam sakarpuram raktacandanayojitam (P ED vol.1,
p.25, 1.3)
CaSamPa ad loc. idanlm pahcamrtam darsayati madhv ityadina. madhv iti su-
kram. raktam rudhiram. sakarpuram mahamamsasahitam. punaraktagrahana-
m mutram. candanam vit. (S ED p. 110, 1.7— p.lll, 1.1)
(Trsl. of the CaSamPa) Now [the Blessed One] shows the five nectars by [the half
stanza] beginning with "honey." "Honey" is semen. "Red" is blood. With "camphor"
is with human meat. The [word] "red" employed again [denotes] urine. "Sandal"
is excrement.
The five meats, which are sometimes called the five lamps (pancapradipa), are
the meat of cow, dog, elephant, horse, and human being. They are also called
gokudahana, which is the combination of the first syllables of the names of those
five creatures. 83
The GuSi teaches consumption of impure substances to remove conceptual
cognition as one of the practices in the unmattavrata (Observance of the Mad-
man).
GuSa 6.8: vikalpayonisambhutam M yal lokesu jugupsitam |
tat tadbhavam samasihaya cared guhyavratam vratl ||
(S ED p.39, 11.16-17)
(Trsl.) Since what is disgusting in the world is produced from the womb of con-
ceptual cognition, the observer should perform the secret observance depending
upon the true nature of it. 85
The Prajnopayaviniscayasiddhi (PraUpaViSi) also teaches that a practitioner
should eat anything in order to remove conceptual cognition.
PraUpaViSi 5.29:
gamyagamyadisamkalpam natra kuryat kadacana |
mayopamadiyogena bhoktavyam sarvam eva hi ||
(S ED p.84, 11.3-4; T ED part 2, p.153, 11.17-18)
83 See, e.g., KrYaTaRaAv ad KrYaTa 3.12b: pancamamsam gokudahanam (S ED p. 21,
1.12).
84 vikalpayonisambhutamJi Tib.: mam rtogyid las byuh bayi (D f.l9rl, P f.20v7, S ED
p.69, 1.3)
85 This suggests that the final purpose of the practice is not removal of conceptual
cognition, but acquirement of the true nature of things. Cf. Sferra 1999, especially
89ff.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
(Trsl.) In this [Observance of the Truth (tattvacaryaj\, [an initiate] should not
have conceptual cognition such as "[this is] suitable" or "[this is] unsuitable in
any case. He should eat anything by the yoga [to realise that everything is] like
illusion and the other [yogas by which he can be free from conceptual cognition].
Jnanasri teaches that a practitioner consumes the five nectars and the five
meats in the proper method, i.e. consuming these impure substances desirelessly
after meditating upon them as empty or the nectar of deities. The PraUpaViSi
teaches that the five nectars are celestial.
PraUpaViSi 5.29-30:
dharmadhatusamudbhuta na kecit paripanthinah |
prabhuhjlta yathakamam nirvisahkena cetasd ||
sambhogartham idam sarvam traidhdtukam asesatah |
nirmitam vajrasattvena sadhakanam hitdya ca ||
(S ED P-84, 11.5-8; T ED part 2, p.153, 11.27-30)
(Trsl.) [Things to be eaten by an initiate and his consort (bdhyamudrd)] arise
from the dharma-realm, and none of them is impediment. He shouldf, therefore,]
enjoy [them] at will with his mind free from fear. All of these in the three worlds,
without remaining, are created by Vajrasattva so that practitioners may enjoy
them. [These are made] for their sake.
Jnanasri teaches that some non-human beings protect a practitioner when
he has got the ascertaining cognition that the conception of difference with re-
gard to all things is false. Some texts teach that the consumption of the five
nectars is a protection for a practitioner although the teachings are not perfectly
in harmony with the statement of Jnanasri.
HeTa 1.6.14:
bhaksitavyam tu bhaisajyam pdtavyam vdri nityatdm |
jaramrtyur na bddheta raksdbhutah sadd bhavet \\
(S ED p.20, 11.3-4)
(Trsl.) [A practitioner] should always take "medicine," and drink "water." [If so,]
old age and disease would never trouble [him]. He would always be protected
[from evil beings].
YoRaMa ad loc:
bhaisajyam catuhsamam. vary aksobhyah. nityateti nityam. raksabhuta iti pisa-
cadlnam adhrsyah. (S E d p. 120, 11.6-8)
(Trsl.) "Medicine" is catuhsama. "Water" is Aksobhya. Nityata [should be under-
stood as] nityam (= should be understood as adverbial). 86 Protected means that
he would always be invincible for flesh-eating fiends and other [evil beings].
86 The reading of the manuscript of the tantra which the commentator accessed might
have been nityata rather than nityatdm.
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
HeTa 2.3.59a: gutham catuhsamam proktam (S ED p. 60, 1.20)
(Trsl.) It is taught that catuhsama [denotes] excrement.
CaMePra ch.2: mutram aksobhyasyddhisthdnam (W ED p. 355, 1.8; S E d P-12, 1.2-3)
(Trsl.) Aksobhya is located in urine.
The above-quoted verse of the HeTa teaches that the impure substances called
"medicine" and "water," which are two articles of the five nectars, protect a prac-
titioner from old age, disease, and evil beings. A similar teaching is found also in
the PraUpaViSi.
PraUpaViSi 5.18-19:
vighnamdrddisdntyartham pancdmrtam adhisrayet |
esd tv anuttard raksd vinmutrddivyavasthitd \\
jvard gard visa rogd ddkinyupadravagrahdh \
mdrd vindyakds caiva prasamam ydnty anena hi ||
(S ED p.83, 11.3-6, T ED part 2, p.155, 11.19-22)
(Trsl.) [A practitioner] should consume the five nectars in order to quell obsta-
cles, tempters and other [evil beings]. This is the supreme protection depending
upon excrement, urine and other [impure substances]. For fever, diseases (gara),
poison, diseases (roga), ddkinis, calamities, grahas, tempters, and vindyakas are
quelled by this (= consumption of the five nectars).
As examined above, some tantric Buddhists justified consumption of impure
substances, teaching that its purpose is to be free from conceptual cognition. It
is no doubt that Jnanasri's argument is based on this justification. On the other
hand, Jnanasri teaches that some non-human beings rejoice at the practitioner,
guard him, and hold his instruction when conceptual cognition ceases to arise.
Some tantric texts teaches that the five nectars protect the practitioner from old
age, disease, and evil beings, but this teaching is not perfectly consistent with
that of Jnanasri. He also teaches that the practitioner does not have to consume
impure substances when he has attained the cognition of equality. Normally, the
practitioner is required to practice this kind of observance until he sees the sign
of the accomplishment (siddhinimitta). At this moment, I am not sure whether
his teaching is his original idea or he follows a predecessor's one.
5 Concluding Remarks
I have examined Jnanasri's arguments about superiority of the tantric practice.
He states that the tantric practice is superior in the respect that it excludes
the three kinds of wrong practice: (1) practices which weaken the faculties of
a practitioner, (2) practices which distract the mind of a practitioner, and (3)
practices which cause a practitioner to grasp things as existent. These three
aspects of the tantric practice are common to each other in the respect that they
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
are more or less mind-oriented; the tantric practice excludes (1) practices which
cause distraction of mind indirectly, (2) practices which cause distraction of mind
directly, and (3) practices which cause conceptual cognition. As examined above,
generally speaking, tantric Buddhists justified the practices which transgress
the traditional Buddhist moral precepts and the boundary of purity, claiming
that they bring the state of being free from conceptual cognition or distraction of
mind. Jnanasri's arguments are based on the similar justification, but it is still
difficult to know the position of the Jnanasri in the history of the tantric practice.
Our future task is to read related texts more and investigate the background of
Jnanasri's arguments.
Abbreviations and Sigla
D The sDe dge edition of the Tibetan canon
NAK National Archives, Kathmandu
NGMPP Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project
Ota. D. SUZUKI (ed.) The Tibetan Tripitaka, Peking Edition: Kept in the Li-
brary of the Otani University, Kyoto: Reprinted under the Supervision
of the Otani University of Kyoto: Catalogue & Index, Tokyo: Suzuki
Research Institute, 1962. ( — —
)
P The Peking edition of the Tibetan canon
sTog The sTog palace kangyur.
Taisho Taisho Shinshu Daizokyo ( )
Toh. H. Ul, M. SUZUKI, Y. KANAKURA and T TADA (eds.) A Complete Cat-
alogue of the Tibetan Buddhist Canons, Sendai: Tohoku Imperial Uni-
versity, 1934. ( )
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
KrYaTaRaAv Ratnavali, a panjika on the Krsnayamaritantra by Kumara-
candra. See KrYaTa.
GuSaTa Guhyasamdjatantra. M ED : Yukei MATSUNAGA (ed.) Himitsu
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Chapter 7 is edited in Frementle 1990.
GuSi Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra. S ED : S. Rinpoche and V. Dwivedi
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GuSi Tib : the Tibetan translation of the GuSi. Tibetan title:
rGyud ma lus pa'i don nes par skul bar byed pa. Ota. 3061,
rgyud 'grel, vol.mi, ff.lrl-31r6; Toh.2217, rgyud, vol.wi, ff.lvl-
28v4. The Tibetan translation of the GuSi has been edited in
S ED , pp. 1-197 (Tibetan Part).
CaMePra Caryamelapakapradipa. W ED : WEDEMEYER 2007; S ED :
J. Sh. PANDEY (ed.) Caryamelapakapradlpam of Acarya
Aryadeva, Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan
Studies, 2000. Rare Buddhist Text Series 22. Manuscript
preserved in the National Archives, Kathmandu, under the
title Samsayapariccheda (MS B in WEDEMEYER 2007). NAK
3-363 / vi. bauddhatantra 82 = NGMPP A48/6. 87
CaSamPa Cakrasamvarapanjika, a panjika on the LaSamTa by Jayab-
hadra. Edited in Sugiki 2001 (S ED ).
TaSi Tattvasiddhi attributed to Santaraksita. MS: NAK 5-45 =
NGMPP A915/3 (MS A in MORIGUCHI 1998). Partly edited in
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TaSi Tib The Tibetan translation of the Tattvasiddhi. Tibetan title: De
kho na nid grub pa zhes bya ba'i rab tu byed pa. Ota. rgyud
'grel, vol. nu, ff.28r5-42vl; Toh. 3708, rgyud, vol. tsu, ff.26vl-
39r2.
NaGuSaTaTaTi Sriguhyasamajatantrasya tantratika, a commentary on the
GuSaTa by Nagarjuna. Tibetan title: dPal gsan ba 'dus
pa'i rgyud kyi rgyud 'grel pa. Ota. 2648, rgyud 'grel, vol. sa,
ff. Irl-399v2; Toh. 1784, rgyud, vol. sa, ff. Ivl-324r7.
PaA Tib Sriparamadyanamamahayanakalparaja. Tibetan title: dPal
mchog dan po zhes bya ba theg pa che po'i rtog pa'i rgyal po.
87 This is the latter half of one manuscript and contains the text of chapters 6-11. The
first half of the manuscript, which contains the first five chapters, is preserved in
the Asiatic Society, Calcutta (No.4837).
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
sTog 446, rgyud, vol. na ff. Ivl-35r2; Ota. 119, rgyud, vol. to,
ff. 153b7-178r6; Toh.487, rgyud 'bum, vol. to, ff. 150vl-173r4.
This corresponds to chapters 1-13 of the Chinese translation.
PaA cll The Chinese translation of the Paramddya. Chinese title:
. Taisho No.244, vol.8, 786bl6-
824a22.
PaAMaKaKha Tib Sriparamadyamantrakalpakhanda. Tibetan title: dPal mchog
dan po'i snags kyi Hog pa'i dum bu. sTog 447, rgyud, vol. na,
ff.35r3-171v2; Ota. 120, ryud, vol. ta, ff. 178r6-277r8; Toh. 488,
rgyud 'bum vol. to, ff. 173r4-256v7. This corresponds to
chapters 14-25 of the Chinese translation of the PaA.
PiKraSa Pindlkramasadhana of Nagarjuna. Louis DE La VALLEE
POUSSIN (ed.) Etudes et textes tantriques, Pancakrama, Gand:
H. Engelcke and Louvain: J. .B. Istas, 1896, pp. 1-14.
PraUd Pradlpoddyotana, a tlka on the GuSaTa by Candrakirti. C ED :
Ch. CHAKRAVARTI (ed.) Guhyasamajatantrapradlpodyota-
natlkasatkotivyakhya (sic), Patna: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal
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PraUdAbhPra Pradlpoddyotanabhisamdhiprakasika nama vyakhyatlka. Ti-
betan title: sGron ma gsal bar byed pa'i dgohs pa rab gsal zes
bya ba bsad pa'i tlka. Ota. 2658(a) (chapters 1-9), rgyud 'grel,
vol. a, ff.lrl-348r8; Ota. 2658(b) (chapters 9-17), rgyud, vol.ki,
ff.61b5-245a7; Toh. 1793, rgyud, vol.ki, f.lbl-vol. khi, f.l55r5.
PraUpaViSi Prajnopayaviniscayasiddhi. Sed: S. Rinpoche and V. Dwivedi
(eds.) Guhyadi-astasiddhi-sahgraha, Sarnath: Central Insti-
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MaKa Marmakalika, apanjika on Sunyasamadhivajra's Tattvajnana-
samsiddhi by Viryasrimitra. S E d: J- Sh. Pandey (ed.) Tattva-
jnanasamsiddhih of Sunyasamadhipada with Maramakalika-
panjika of Viryasrimitra, Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher
Tibetan Studies, 2000. Rare Buddhist Text Series 23.
MuAv Muktavall, a commentary on the Hevajratantra by Ratnaka-
rasanti. The Caryapatala (chapter 1.6) has been preliminarily
edited by Harunaga Isaacson for the lecture series 'The Heva-
jratantra and Its Exegetical Literature' in Oxford, Trinity
Term, 1998. I follow the readings of Isaacson's preliminary
edition in this article.
MS A: NAK 4-19 = NGMPP 994/6; MS B: No. 513 preserved in
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Superiority of Vajrayana, Part II
the University of Tokyo.
S E d: R- Sh. Tripathi and Th. S. Negi (eds.) Hevajratantram with
Muktdvall Pahjikd of Mahdpanditdcdrya Ratndkarasdnti, Sar-
nath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001. Bib-
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YoRaMa Yogaratnamdld, a commentary on the Hevajratantra by Krsna
or Kanha. Edited in SNELLGROVE 1959, part II, pp. 103-159
(S ED ).
YoMaPaKraTi Yogimanohard, a tippanl on the Pahcakrama by Munisrl-
bhadra. T ED : Zhongxin JIANG and Toru TOMABECHI (eds.),
The Pahcakramatippanl of Munisrlbhadra: Introduction
and Romanized Sanskrit Text, Bern et al.: Peter Lang,
1996. Schweizerische Asiengesellschaft/Societe Suisse-Asie
Monographie Band/Volume 23.
LaSamTa Laghusamvaratantra (alias Herukdbhidhdna). Ped: J- Sh.
PANDEY (ed.) Srlherukdbhidhdnam Cakrasamvaratantram
with Vivrti Commentary of Bhavabhatta, Sarnath: Central In-
stitute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2002. 2 vols. Rare Buddhist
Texts Series 26.
VaDaTa Vajraddkatantra. Manuscript preserved in the Tokyo Univer-
sity Library, No. 343.
VAN *Vajraydndntadvayanirdkarana of Jfianasri. Tibetan title: rDo
rje theg pa'i mtha' gnis sel ba. Ota. 4537, rgyud grel, vol. nu,
ff.l28r2-133r2; Toh. 3714, rgyud, vol. tsu, ff.H5r7-120r2.
VaiAbhTa™ Vairocandbhisambodhitantra. Full title: Mahdvairocandbhi-
sambodhivikurvitddhisthdnavaipulyasutrendrardjandmapa-
rydya.
Tibetan title: Ota. 126, vol.tha, f.H5b2-225v2; Toh. 494,
vol. tha, f.l51v2-260r7.
VaiAbhTa Ch The Chinese translation of Vairocandbhisambodhitantra. Full
title: Mahdvairocandbhisambodhivikurvitddhisthdnavaipu-
lyasutrendrardjandmaparydya.
Chinese title: . Taisho No.848, vol.18,
lal-55a4.
SaBuSaYoDaJaSamTa
Sarvabuddhasamdyogaddkinijdlasamvaratantra. Tibetan ti-
tle: Sans rgyas thams cad dan mnam par sbyor ba mkha' gro
sgyu ma bde ba'i mchog ces bya ba'i rgyud bla ma phyi ma.
sTog 395, rgyud, vol. ha, ff.241rl-295v2; Ota. 8, rgyud, vol.ka,
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ff.l64r5-209r2; Toh. 366, rgyud 'bum, vol. Aa, ff.l51vl-193r6.
SuSam Subhasitasamgraha of an anonymous author. B ED : Cecil Ben-
dall (ed.) "Subhasita-samgraha: An Anthology of Extracts from
Buddhist Works Compiled by an Unknown Author, to Illustrate
the Doctrines of Scholastic and Mystic (Tantrik) Buddhism."
Part I, Le Museon N. S. IV, 1903, pp.375-402; Part II, Le Museon
N. S. V, 1904, pp.5-46.
HeTa Hevajratantra. S ED : SNELLGROVE 1959, part II.
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University of Tokyo
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites in
Buddhist Samvara Cycle and its Related Scriptural Cycles in Early
Medieval South Asia
— The Geography of Esoteric Buddhism
in the Eyes of the Compilers of the Scriptures —
Tsunehiko SUGIKI
Introduction
Doctrines concerning holy sites were often the center of focus among compilers of
the scriptures belonging to the Buddhist Samvara cycle and its related scriptural
cycles in early Medieval India. The systems of holy sites appearing in this body of
texts are complex and diverse. Indeed much has been written about the systems
of holy sites found in these Buddhist traditions. However, the structure and the
nature of each of these systems and the overall picture of these systems have not
been clarified enough.
It is the aim of this paper 1 to clarify the base structure that these systems
have in common and based on this elucidation draw a comprehensive picture of
them in the eyes of the text-compilers. To do so, I will also employ some new data.
In the conclusion, I will compare the structure of these esoteric Buddhist systems
of holy sites with that of the orthodox Buddhist system of the Eight Great Sites
(astamahasthana) i.e. Lumbinl/Kapilavastu, Buddhagaya, Varanasi, Sravasti,
Samkasa, Rajagrha, Vaisali, and Kusinagari 2 in the post-Gupta era in order to
make the structure of the esoteric system clearer.
1 The structure of the system of holy sites: two levels and three
dimensions
The instructions found in the Samvara and its related cycles concerning the ge-
ographical location and the feature of the holy sites have so far been given only
little attention. By examining these instructions, the nature of the system of holy
sites of Samvara Buddhism and its related cycles will become clearer.
1.1 Instructions concerning the geological locations and the features
of individual holy sites
The early scriptures of the Samvara cycle such as the Cakrasamvaratantra, al-
though they give the list of names of holy sites and the instruction on how to
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
perform the practice centered on this list, explain in detail neither the geograph-
ical locations nor the features of these holy sites. The detailed instructions on
their geographical locations and features appear in some later works. The Yul
ni bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstan pa ascribed to Naropada and translated into
Tibetan by Mar pa, which is included only in the Peking edition of the Tibetan
tripitaka under the title Cakrasamvaravikurvana (dPal hkhor lo bde mchog gi
mam par hphrul pa), explains the geographical locations, features, and/or tales
of origin of many of the holy sites found in the Samvara tradition. (For details,
see TABLE 3.) This work reveals that Samvara holy sites are located not only in
present south Asia but also in Tibet, middle Asia, and China and that many of
these sites have sacred rocks (or stones) of various shapes as the sacral centers
of these sites. Some other scriptures or commentaries (as shown below) also give
explanations on the geographical locations of some of these sites.
However, the compilers of these texts did not always reach a consensus on
some of the geographic locations of the Samvara sites. Let us see the instruc-
tions on the sites Himalaya, Nepala, Nagara, Suvarnadvipa, Grhadevata, Arbu-
da, and Vajrapitha. According to Naropada, the site named Himalaya refers
to Mt. Kailasa, 3 but to Kathmandu Valley also called Nepala according to the
Newar Buddhist Svayambhupurana 4 and some other traditions of Newar Bud-
dhism. 5 Furthermore, although Himalaya and Nepala are identical in these
texts, the Dakarnavatantra regards them as different sites. 6 The site named
Nagara refers to the Larikapura or Kasmira area according to Naropada 7 and
to Pataliputra according to the Yoginijalatantra, 8 commentaries of the Hevajra-
tantra, 9 and the Amnayamahjarl. 10 The site Suvarnadvipa, which is generally
identified as an island on the ocean of present south India (freqently Sri Lanka),
is an island on the ocean of west India or the land in east China according to Na-
ropada. 11 The term Grhadevata, as pointed out by A. Sanderson, was originally
the name of a deity at a site called Saurastra in the Saiva Tantrasadbhava. 12 On
the other hand, Naropada regards this site as Li yul, Kamsadesa, which may be
identified as Khotan in present Central Asia. 13 The site named Arbuda, which is
generally identified as Mt. Abu in present Rajasthan, is Taksasila according to
Naropada. According to the Mahamudratilakatantra, the site-name Vajrapitha
is a synonym for Oddiyana. 14 However, according to Abhayakaragupta's Amna-
yamanjan, Vajrapitha is a synonymous term not for Oddiyana but for Pollagiri,
Kollagiri, and Pulliramalaya in the Samputodbhavatantra. 15
Indeed the compilers of each text attempt to pinpoint a specific geographical
location for each individual site. However, as examined above, it is likely that
the location of these sites was not fixed but rather flexible. 16 Abhayakaragupta's
Amnayamanjari and Sakyaraksita's Pithadinirnaya give a more liberal view
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
concerning the geographical locations of the sites in question. They state that
each site has multiple identities concerning their belonging site-categories 17 and
that any localities in south Asia, Tibet, China, and other areas where females
of any social classes such as brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, and sudra who are
believed to be dakinis or magical female beings (mkhah hgro ma) reside can
be regarded as holy sites having the same function as those preached in the
Samvara and its related scriptures because of the presence of these magical fe-
male beings. 18 It should also be noted that the compilers of the texts had different
views concerning the features of the holy sites in question as well as their geo-
graphical locations. As mentioned above, while Naropada often regarded sacred
rocks of various shapes as the sacral centers of these sites, Abhayakaragupta
and Sakyaraksita deemed the living magical female beings of any social classes
inhabiting these sites as the sacral essence of these sites and made no mention
on the sacred rocks.
This flexibility in the assignment of geographical locations and features to
the holy sites in question suggests the following point concerning the nature of
the system of holy sites in question. Seen from the standpoint of the compilers
of the Samvara scriptures, the basis of the system of holy sites in Samvara Bud-
dhism is formed by a list of names of holy sites rather than specific localities
themselves. (The list of names of holy sites varies according to the texts.) The
list serves as a symbolic framework along which individual sites are arranged
according to the compiler's wishes to a certain extent. Thus, the various names
of holy sites found in this list can be seen as separate from the actual sites which
they refer to. Indeed, the names on the list can be assigned to other existing
geographical locations as seen above and can also be systematized in the form
of a mandala or other systems independent of geographical locations as will be
discussed below. The following discussion centers on the above definition of the
nature of the Samvara system of holy sites.
1.2 Two levels and three dimensions
It is possible to develop a typology of levels and dimensions of holy sites found in
Samvara Buddhism. Based on the observation made above that the list of holy
sites functions as a symbolic framework, it is possible to discern two levels and
three dimensions in this system.
The two levels are (i) the level of the system of practice and (ii) the level of
the system as the mythological world-view. These two levels are deeply connected
with each other.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
The first level
The first level, i.e. the system of practice, has three dimensions: (A) external
holy sites as geographical locations, (B) external holy sites seen as separated
from specific locations, and (C) internal holy sites. This idea can be developed
on the basis of the brief preach on three dimensions of practice centered on holy
sites given in Abhayakaragupta's Amnayamanjari i.e. "extrenal (phyi rol) (holy
sites)," "(holy sites organized into a) wheel of mandala (dkyil hkhor gyi hkhor
lo)," and "bodily (lus) (holy sites)" 19 and on the basis of the survey of individual
instructions on the practice of holy sites given in the other texts belonging to
Samvara tradition and its related scriptural cycles.
Holy sites in dimension (A) refer to geographical locations which the scrip-
tures describe as pilgrimage sites. It is difficult to differentiate the lands that
practitioners of the Samvara tradition actually visited and those that were, based
on D.C. Sircar's view and A. Wayman's definition, "imaginary Tantric lands," 20
the sites which were listed in the scriptures merely by the compilers' imagination
and to which little or no pilgrimage was actually made. We need more archaeo-
logical and historical researches on the lands in question, bearing in mind that
the scriptures give different instructions on the actual geographical location of
the lands in question. However, it seems possible to state at this stage that all
these lands were assumed by practitioners of Samvara Buddhism to have sacred
qualities, as there are works expounding on the geographical locations of and/or
describing the features of these sites as observed in the previous subsection of
this paper.
Holy sites in dimension (B) are regarded as separate from any particular
geographical location and take the form either of an external (bdhya) mandala
to be drawn and to be visualized or of verses to be recited. Practitioners use
colored powder to draw on ground and visualize the holy sites as constituent
components of a mandala, or praise them in verse.
Holy sites in dimension (C), which are also seen as separate from actual
geographical locations, take on the form of an internal (adhyatma or the like)
mandala identical with the structure of one's body (more exactly stated, the
suksmasarira or subtle body of one's physical body). This dimension has a close
relationship to the idea of the sahaja, or the Innate, which is the idea of truth
expressed in Tantric scriptures of both Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions.
In Buddhism, the idea of the Innate was first developed in the Hevajra cycle
and then incorporated into the Samvara and the other cycles. This view holds
that one's innate body already carries within it the means for attaining accom-
plishments (siddhi) and that one cannot actually attain them without one's body.
Hence, the practices concerning holy sites are performed not outside of one's body
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
but inside and on the surface of it.
The second level
In line with the instructions on holy sites given in the Cakrasamvaratantra and
the Hevajratantra, the earliest scriptures of the Samvara cycle and of the Heva-
jra one respectively, the works belonging to the same cycles describe holy sites
as places where local goddesses of fierce appearance reside with their husband
gods or where human females who are believed to be magical female beings such
as dakini, yoginl, and dutl live or assemble. 21 These indigenous deities or mag-
ical female beings are regarded as powerful beings that can bring practitioners
various kinds of accomplishments (siddhi). Hence, these works attach great im-
portance to the systems of practice in which holy sites play a certain function.
Generally stating, deep correlations between a system of practice and a
mythological world-view can often be observed in the religious system. In the
case of the systems of holy sites in question, the mythological world-view holds
that the holy sites scattered across earth are filled with the divine powers of
these pairs of deities or magical female beings. This mythological world-view
functions to legitimize the efficacy which the practices centered on these holy
sites are believed to have and the perceived efficacy of the system legitimized in
this way reproduces analogous myths in successive compilations of scriptures.
The hierarchy of the three dimensions of the first level
In line with a tendency often seen in Indian esoteric traditions, siddhas (=
those who have attained religious accomplishments) or monks who studied
the Samvara cycle such as Ghantapada, Krsnacarya, Abhayakaragupta, and
Sakyaraksita regarded dimension (C) as being the highest among the three
dimensions of the level of the system of practice. 22
Abhayakaragupta, in his Amndyamanjarl, gives a detailed hierarchy of
practices concerning holy sites as shown in TABLE l. 23 The analogous in-
struction can be found in Sakyaraksita's Pithadinirnaya. 24 Items numbered
(i) correspond to dimension (A), those numbered (ii) to dimension (B), and
those numbered (iii) and (iv) to dimension (C). 25 The practice summarized in
items numbered (v) means the three-dimensional practices of holy sites with an
attempt to understand their Mahayanic meanings. The practice in dimension
(B) is superior to that in dimension (A) and the practice in dimension (C) is
higher than that in dimension (B). However, if one attempts to understand the
Mahayanic meanings which the system of holy sites carries, which is the highest
manner of practice centered on holy sites, there exists no hierarchy between the
three dimensions.
-519-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 1
(i)
For the lesser.
Pilgrimage to external holy sites.
(ii)
For the median.
Practice of the external mandala of holy
sites.
(iii)
For the lower-excellent.
Visualization of the internal mandala of holy
sites by putting seeds (bija)' } on and in the
body.
(iv)
For the middle-excellent.
Visualization of the internal mandala of holy
sites without depending on seeds.
(v)
For the upper-excellent
Perfect and skillful practice of the mandala
of holy sites. One attempts to understand
what it symbolizes: the mandala of holy sites
signifies the bodhicitta, is illusionary and
represents bhumi andparamita.
[Note] i) Seeds (blja) in this context mean initial letters of individual holy sites. These
seeds signify the individual holy sites. The coupled deities residing in the individual holy
sites are cultivated from these seeds.
2 Four typological traditions of the system of holy sites
It is also possible to divide the holy sites into the following typologies of holy sites
according to their origins and forms.
The first typological tradition: Twenty-four holy sites systematized on the ba-
sis of ten categories of sites such as pltha and so forth.
The second typological tradition: Holy sites systematized on the basis of
twelve categories of sites such as pltha and so forth.
The third typological tradition: Twenty-four holy sites.
The fourth typological tradition: Seventy- two magical female beings residing
in seventy-two holy sites systematized on the basis of the theories of inner
circles (cakra) and the inner wheel of time (kdlacakra).
There also exist further traditions of categorization. However, the traditions
listed above can be described as the representative four types of categorization. It
is possible to exclude the fourth typological tradition from the above list because
holy sites per se appear only latently in this system as will be discussed in the
sixth section of this paper. However, I examine this system, treating it as the
system of holy sites in which holy sites per se are present only latently.
While keeping their independence from each other to a certain degree, these
four traditions of categorizing holy sites also influenced each other as will be seen
-520-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
below. Let us examine the contents of these four traditions in detail and observe
how the two levels and the three dimensions discussed in the previous section
apply to these four types.
3 The holy sites of the first typological tradition
Among the four representative systems of holy sites, the system of the first ty-
pological tradition is the most popular and the most influential in the Samvara
cycle as will be clarified in the following analysis.
3.1 The level as the system of practice
A matured form of the system of the first typological tradition appears in many
scriptures of the Samvara cycle such as the Abhidhanottaratantra, 26 the Yo-
ginlsamcaratantra 27 and the Vajradakatantra 28 and many manuals for ritual
and meditation such as the Cakrasamvarabhisamaya of Luyipada. This sys-
tem can be summarized as shown in TABLE 2 and 3. There are variants of the
system of the first type such as the mandala of four lineage-mistresses intro-
duced in the Abhidhanottaratantra 29 and the Varahyabhidhanottara 30 and the
satcakravartimandala or the mandala of six lineage-lords preached in the Abhi-
dhanottaratantra 31 and Abhayakaragupta's Nispannayogavall 32 .
TABLE 2 shows the structure and the meanings of the mandala con-
sisting of twenty-four sites. As A. Sanderson points out, the names of these
twenty-four holy sites derive from those of the holy sites mentioned in the
Saiva Tantrasadbhava. The sites in the order as they are found in the Saiva
Tantrasadbhava are Kuluta, Aranyesa, Sindhu, Nagesvara, Samudrakuksi,
Saurastra, Pretapuri, Himalaya or Himagiri, Kanci, Lampaka, Kalihga,
Kausala, Sthala, Trisakuni, Odra, Kamarupa, Malava, Devikota, Sudharama,
Godavari, Tata (or the bank of Godavari river, godavarltata), and Arbuda. 33
This order of the holy sites of the Saiva list is reversed and Mahayanic concepts
are given to these sites in the Samvara scriptures. 34
TABLE 3 provides a summary of geographic locations and features of the
sites depicted in Naropada's Yul hi bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstanpa. 35 As shown
in this table, Naropada identifies many of the Samvara sites with sites whose
center is formed by sacral rocks such as rock lihga of various shapes and rock
dharmodaya. 36
The twenty-four holy sites are represented as twenty-four geographical loca-
tions in dimension (A) and as an external mandala to be drawn or visualized in
dimension (B). There are ten categories of holy sites such as pitha, upapltha, and
eight others (plthadi). These ten site-categories are identical with the ten spir-
itual stages (dasabhumi) beginning with the stage pramudita and ending with
-521-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
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-522-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
TABLE 3
Pulhramalaya
Mt. Malaya, which the aroma of sandalwoods fills.
Jalandhara
The site which is located 1 krosa distant from one big town where three
rivers from three places named To lih, Gar shi, and Si ka meet each other.
This site has 80 rocky caverns, 80 springs, and 80 trees, and a bathing place
for heretics and Si ka natives.
Odyana
The western spot empowered by magical female beings. Owing to this em-
powerment, the earth of this site is like the dharmodaya or origin of the
dharmas and those who live there are very intelligent.
Arbuda
The town named Taksasila. In this site, there is a dense forest in the moun-
tain shaped like a female's breast and people such as herders and others
live.
Godavari
There is a natural product shaped like the dharmodaya filled with [whitish
mineral water seen as] bodhicitta in black rocks of the form of a milk-pot.
This site lies on the border of the land located in Vindhya range.
Ramesvara
There is a rock shaped like the mane of a horse. This is situated in the town
of the king Ramesvara, east of Vajrasana.
Devikota
This site is located 4 krosa distant from Varendra in eastern district. In
this site, there is a temple of king De so pa la where the image of two-eyed
Umadevi is enshrined.
Malava
There is a rock dharmodaya at a seat of accomplishment shaped like a gar-
land.
Kamarupa
An eastern site. A rock dharmodaya is situated near an image of god shaped
like the armpit (? hchan khuri).
Odra
This site is located in south, the place of King Dasaratha. Here is a seat of
accomplishment, on which there is a mark of the dead (or sivalihga) shaped
like a nipple. This site bears abundant chattels.
Trisakuni
This is Turuska's place where three rivers named Gariga, Paksu, and
Sindhu meet, a site where many kinds of bird sing. There is a rock dharmo-
daya.
Kosala
There is a linga shaped like the nose at a seat of accomplishment located 1
krosa distant from the realm of King Sas rgyal in west.
Kalinga
There is a seat of accomplishment shaped like the mouth. It lies on the
border between the grass field and the forest in the land named gLaft pas
hdsin, which is located 12 yojana distant from Vajrasana. In this site, there
are many preta or spirits of dead people.
-523-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Lampaka
There is a rock lihga shaped like the throat at a seat of accomplishment that con-
sists of rock and waterstream. This seat is located behind the tribal (gar log) area.
There is also a rock which appears to be hanged. Since this site has fallen into the
clutches of worldly magical female beings, no people live there currently.
Kanci
There is a rock lihga shaped like the heart. It is located at the center of a big town
12 yojana distant from the land of Turuska. People in this site have clear wisdom.
Himalaya
Mt. Kailasa. Water flows in a rock lihga of the size of a man. Snowy place.
Pretapuri
There is a rock lihga shaped like a mark (some sect mark? mtsham ma) at the
center of valleys. These valleys are located on the border between India and Tibet.
People are suffered from hunger and thirst in this site.
Grhadevata
There is a rock lihga decorated with objects shaped like foods for divinities. It is
located in the willow forest with dense fog (? lean ra rmug po or this is a name of
place) in the land named Li yul.
Saurastra
There is a lihga shaped like the thigh at a seat of accomplishment. This is located
in the town named Bu mu in the land of Turuska. The earth and rocks of this site
are solid and nice. Someone identifies this site as the town named Ba ra na se.
Suvarnadvipa
The golden island located on the ocean of west India. Someone identifies this site
as the realm of King gTsug gi nor bu, which is located in east China. In this site,
there is a lihga shaped like the shank. People nourish themselves in this site.
Nagara
Larikapura, the land of raksasa. There is a rock lihga shaped like the toes in (or
by the side of) lakes. Someone identifies this site as an area around the monastery
standing on the border of Kasmlra and northwest India.
Sindhu
This site is located between Jalandhara and the land of Turuska and contains the
bank of the river Sindhu flowing near Jalandhara. At this bank, there is a rock
lihga shaped like the sole.
Maru
There is a rock lihga shaped like the big toes in rock caverns where 108 practition-
ers live. It is located to the north of Jalandhara.
Kuluta
There is a lihga shaped like the knee and a [rock shaped like] the dharmodaya
below it. They are situated in a cave of the land named Nun ti, which is located
behind the land Gar sha. In this site, there are blessed rocky mountains.
-524-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
the stage dharmameghd. The concept of the ten spiritual stages is a traditional
doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism, although the order of the stage abhimukhl and
the stage sudurjayd is reversed in the case of this system of holy sites. The ddkinl
or magical female beings who are believed to reside at these sites represent the
ten perfections (dasapdramitd). A later work, the Jnanodayatantra, further con-
nects the ten site-categories with the ten wisdoms (dasajndna). 37 This means
that practices based on this system bring the accomplishment of the ten spiri-
tual stages as well as the ten perfections (and the ten wisdoms in the case of the
Jnanodayatantra) in the consciousness of the practitioner and manifest them in
the ritual space.
Twenty-four pairs of a female divinity and a male one, i.e. couples of vlra
(heroes or male divinities) and ddkinl, which are assigned to these twenty-four
sites, form three concentric circles (tricakra). Each circle consists of eight pairs
of divinities. These circles are called (1) mind circle (cittacakra), (2) speech circle
(vakcakra), and (3) body circle (kdyacakra) in order from the innermost to the
outermost circle. The mind circle is located in the sky (akdsa or the like). The
speech circle is located on the ground (bhurloka or the like). The body circle is
located underground (pdtdla). Hence, the ddkinl residing on these three circles
have the following aliases: (1) females going in the sky (khecarl), (2) females go-
ing on the ground (bhucarl), and (3) females living underground (pdtdlavdsinl),
respectively. Additionally, the Jnanodayatantra connects the three concentric
circles with the three aspects of the Buddha's body (trikdya), i.e. the dharma-
body, the sambhoga-body, and the nirmdna-body, respectively 38 Although the
twenty-four locations constituting these three circles in dimension (A) are all lo-
cated on the ground and the entire mandala made up of these three circles in
dimension (B) is drawn on the ground, they are conceptualized as lying in the
three spheres of the experiental world or universe, i.e. sky, ground, and under-
ground. The practices based on this system link the practitioner's consciousness
or the ritual place to the three spheres of the universe (and the three aspects of
the Buddha's body in case of the Jnanodayatantra).
In the case of dimension (C), the twenty-four holy sites mentioned above are
located in twenty-four regions (sthdna) of the practitioner's body. The twenty-
four ddkinls reside in the body in the form of inner channels (nddl). 39 The
twenty-four vlras appear in one's body in the form of bodily components (dhdtu).
These inner channels (= ddkinl) link to or carry the bodily components (= vlra),
running through the regions of the body (= holy sites). The parts of the body, i.e.
the internal holy sites are located throughout the upper, middle, and lower parts
of the body, which corresponds to the distribution of the external holy sites in the
three spheres (i.e. sky, ground, and underground). From this correspondence, it
-525-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
can be inferred that one's body is seen as the microcosmos in this system. By vi-
sualizing the above mandala of internal holy sites, the practitioner realizes that
his/her innate body 40 is parallel to the universe consisting of three spheres (and
the three aspects of Buddha's body in the case of the Jnanodayatantra) and is
complete with the ten spiritual stages connected with the ten perfections (and
with the ten wisdoms in the case of the Jnanodayatantra).
The Cakrasamvaratantra, the earliest scripture of the Samvara cycle, does
not give details on how the twenty-four holy sites, the three circles, and their
internal aspects mentioned above are connected to each other although it al-
ludes vaguely to their correlation. Nor does this text clarify details concern-
ing the internal aspects of this system. 41 This suggests that the system of the
first typological tradition as shown in TABLE 2 was only fully formed after the
Cakrasamvaratantra.
3.2 The level as the mythological world-view
The idea that holy sites are abodes of pairs of female and male deities formed
the basis for the practices related to this system of holy sites. In addition to
this, Naropada, in his Cakrasamvaravikurvana, introduces another concept: the
myth that the Samvara divinities took over the twenty-four sites from Siva and
his retainers. 42
Variants of this myth extant in Tibet have already been studied in depth by
R. Davidson. 43 However, their Indie origin appearing in the above Naropada's
work remains unstudied. The myth found in Naropada's work is a mixture of
the myth that holy sites are abodes of pairs of female and male deities and the
myth of the defeat of Siva and worldly deities at the hands of the Buddhist di-
vinities. The latter myth can be found in the Buddhist scriptures such as the Sar-
vatathagatatattvasamgrahasutra, the Trailokyavijayamahakalparaja, the Can-
draguhyatilakatantra and the Guhyagarbhatattvaniscaya as Davidson pointed
out. 44 The content of this myth can be summarized as follows.
[1] During the era of Kali, a time of moral depravity, some deity of the Thirty-
three (sum cu rtsa gsum gyis[^>gyi] lha hgah shigl sum cu rtsa gsum pa), Gand-
harva, chief Yaksa and his attendant (g'yog), chief Raksasa and his attendant,
chief Naga and his attendant, and chief Asura and his attendant, transforming
themselves into twenty-four Bhairavas or awful divinities {drag po), captured
twenty-four sites located on the continent named Jambu. (Regarding who cap-
tured which sites, see TABLE 4.) They ate flesh, drank blood, enjoyed sexual
intercourse with their wives, and frightened the people living on Jambu. Re-
quested by these Bhairavas, Mahadeva (= Siva), who has four bodies, has the
nature of four kinds of deed, is four-faced, and resides on the summit of Mt.
-526-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
TABLE 4
Some deity
The four sites classified into pitha.
Gandharva
The four sites classified into upapitha.
Yaksa
Chief Yaksa
Attendant Yaksa
The two sites classified into ksetra.
The two sites classified into upaksetra.
Raksasa
Chief Raksasa
The two sites classified into chandoha.
Attendant Raksasa
The two sites classified into upacchandoha.
Naga
Chief Naga
The two sites classified into melapaka.
Attendant Naga
The two sites classified into upamelapaka.
Asura
Chief Asura
The two sites classified into smasana.
Attendant Asura
The two sites classified into upasmasana.
TABLE 5
Enjoyment
Enjoyment in assembly (tshogs kyi hkhor lo): Heruka deprives Saiva
divinities of their wives and performs (sexual yoga) with these wives.
Enjoyment in adornment (brgyan): the Buddhist divinities dress
themselves with bones of the Saiva divinities.
Dissolvement
Dissolvement of life (srog): the Buddhist divinities kill the Saiva
male divinities and transubstantiate their consciousnesses (mam
par ses pa i.e. soul).
Dissolvement of consciousness (mam par ses pa or ye ses i.e. soul):
the Buddhist divinities of both sex absorb the consciousnesses of
Saiva divinities of both sex into their own consciousnesses — the
consciousnesses of Saiva male divinities into those of Buddhist male
ones and the consciousnesses of Saiva female divinities into those of
the Buddhist female ones.
Lordship
(Lordship of body): the Buddhist male divinities stand on the indi-
vidual dead bodies of Saiva divinities.
Lordship of word (hag): the Buddhist divinities shut off the individ-
ual words of Saiva divinities.
Lordship of mind (yid): the Buddhist divinities subjugate the indi-
vidual minds of Saiva divinities.
Meru with his four secondary mother goddesses (ne bahi yum) i.e. Gaurl (gau
ri) in the east, Ekajati (e ka dsa ti) in the south, Kalaratri (ka la ra tri) in the
west, and Umadevi (u ma de bi) in the north 45 and his four secret mother god-
desses (sbas pahi yum) i.e. Kesini (skra can ma), Upakesini (ne bahi skra can
ma), Mun pa ma, and Ne bahi mun pa ma, became the lord of these Bhairavas.
These twenty-five paired awful divinities damaged the people living on Jambu
and brought this world to a state of degeneration.
[2] Unhappy about this catastrophe, the Samyaksambuddha, in order to sub-
jugate these awful divinities, came down from the Akanistha heaven to the sum-
-527-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
mit of Mt. Meru. The Samyaksambuddha manifested himself as the divinity of
the experiential body (Ions sku), who has the nature of Vajradhara, is one-faced
, is two-armed, embraces his consort Samantabhadri (kun tu bzari mo), and is
colored white. Then, he transformed himself into the resultant divinity named
Heruka, who is colored black, is four-faced, is twelve-armed, and embraces his
consort Vajravarahi. Subsequently, Heruka and Vajravarahi created twenty-four
pairs of male and female heroic divinities of the body, the word, and the mind
(i.e. the twenty-four pairs of viras and dakinis of the tricakra). 46
[3] The Buddhist divinities attacked Mahadeva and his retainers mentioned
above and subjugated them in the manner as summarized in TABLE 5. These
subjugating deeds by the Buddhist divinities are classified into three stages: en-
joyment (lohs spyodpa), dissolvement (thimpa), and lordship (dban du by as pa).
These deeds are further summarized as follows: the male and female Saiva di-
vinities were subjugated according to the paths of anger (she sdan gi tshul) and
passion (chags pahi tshul) respectively. In this way, the Buddhist divinities sub-
jugated Saiva divinities and took over the twenty-four sites on Jambu. Heruka
futher created four female divinities, who were gate-keepers, and four other fe-
male divinities (i.e. the eight dikinis of the samayacakra). These eight female
divinities attacked and subjugated Kinnaras of both sex found in the eight direc-
tions of the above Saiva divinities.
[4] Although the twenty-four pairs of Buddhist divinities established
themselves at the twenty-four sites, they had not yet attained enlightenment.
Hence, they went to the top of Mt. Meru where (the Samyaksambuddha
resided). 47 Asked by them to give instructions on the truth and received
various offerings and hymns from them, (the Samyaksambuddha) produced
the scriptures of the Samvara cycle as follows in order: a tantra of a hundred
thousand chapters, the Khasamatantra of a hundred thousand sloka, the
Dakinijalasamvararnavatantra (mkhah hgro ma dra ba sdom pa rgya mtshohi
rgyud) of a hundred thousand pada, a tantra of a hundred thousand letters
consisting of fifty-one chapters, and scriptures called Abhidhanatantra.
The story summarized above consists of four main scenes: [1] the evil reign
by Siva and his retainers over Jambu where the twenty-four sites are located, [2]
Buddha's transformation into the Samvara divinities, [3] the Samvara divinities'
victory over Siva and his retainers and their establishment on the twenty-four
sites, and [4] the production of the Buddhist Samvara scriptures on the summit
of Mt. Meru. From these scenes, the intention of this myth can be interpreted as
(i) attaching Buddha-nature to the violent Samvara divinities, (ii) asserting the
superiority of Buddhism over Saivism, and (iii) reordering this world after the
reign of Siva through the establishment of the Samvara divinities on the twenty -
-528-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
four sites and the creation of the Samvara scriptures on the top of Mt. Meru, the
center of this world, during the Kali age of moral depravity. The reordering of
this world by Samvara scriptures does not mean the complete removal of Saiva
qualities or elements. It is intended that the Saiva qualities were integrated
into Samvara divinities in this reordering of this world. The myth describes
that the Samvara divinities dressed the bones of Saiva divinities, absorbed the
consciousnesses of the Saiva divinities into their own consciousnesses, and stood
on their dead bodies as observed in TABLE 5.
This intention to reorder this world containing the twenty-four sites with
the integration of Saiva qualities can also be observed in Naropada's teachings
concerning the features of individual holy sites summarized in TABLE 3. As
mentioned before, Naropada reveals that many of the Samvara sites have sacred
rocks such as rock lifiga and rock dharmodaya as their sacred center. He does
not mention stupa in these sites, which function as the general site-center in
Orthodox Buddhism. The rock lihga and the rock dharmodaya seem to be coun-
terparts to rock sivalihga and rock yoni of Saivism respectively. Regarding the
rock lihga, Naropada often describes their shapes as being in conformity with
those of the bodily parts which the Samvara scriptures equate to external holy
sites as shown in TABLE 2 e.g. the lihga shapes like the nipple in Odra, the nose
in Kosala, the throat in Lampapa, the heart in Kanci.
4 The holy sites of the second typological tradition
Holy sites of the second typological tradition are systematized using twelve cat-
egories of sites (pithadi). These twelve categories correspond to the ten site-
categories of the first type to which two additional categories, the pilava and the
upapilava categories, have been added. Unlike the system of the first tradition,
the order of these twelve site-categories and the total number of holy sites differ
according to the texts in question.
The basis for the second typological tradition had already been formed in
the Hevajra cycle before the Samvara scriptures introduced this typological tra-
dition. Hence, our discussion starts with an investigation of the system found in
the Hevajratantra, the central scripture of the Hevajra cycle.
4.1 Holy sites in the Hevajratantra
TABLE 6 shows the system of holy sites introduced in the Hevajratantra, 48 and
interpretations on these sites given in the Yogaratnamala 49 and the Muktavali, 50
two commentaries on the Hevajratantra. 51 The names of the top four sites cat-
egorized as pitha, i.e. Jalandhara, Oddiyana (= Uddiyana= Odyana), Purnagiri,
and Kamarupa coincide with the four great sites (pitha) of female divinities
-529-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 6 (The Hevajratantra)
Pithadi
Holy site
(1)
Pitha
Jalandhara. Oddiyana. Purnagiri. Kamarupa.
(2)
Upapitha
Malava. Sindhu. Nagara."'
(3)
Ksetra
Munmuni. Karunyapataka. Devlkota. Karmara-
pataka.
(4)
Upaksetra
Kulata. Arbuda. Godavari. Himadri.
(5)
Chandoha
Harikela. The site appearing in the center of the
salty ocean.'"' Lampaka. Kanci. Saurastra.
(6)
Upacchandoha
Kalinga. The golden island."' Konkana.'*
(7)
Meldpaka
—
(8)
Upamelapaka
—
(9)
Pilava
The periphery area of a village. The periph-
ery area of a town. Caritra. Kosala. Vindhya.
Kaumarapaurika.
(10)
UpapTlava
Places close to the pilava-sites.
(11)
Smasana
A place where pretas assemble (i.e. graveyard).
Seashore.
(12)
Upasmasana
Garden. The edge of a pond.
[Note] i) The Yogaratnamala identifies Purnagiri with Kollagiri and Pulliramalaya. ii)
The two commentaries identify this with Pataliputra. iii) The two commentaries read as
"Harikela, which appeared in the center of the salty ocean." iv) The two commentaries
identify this with Suvarnadvipa. v) kokanam — SKT ed.
found in the scriptures belonging to the Kaula and other Sakta tradition. 52
The Hevajratantra itself does not clearly mention the one-to-one correspon-
dence between the twelve site-categories and the spiritual stages although its
commentaries expound this one-to-one correspondence as will be seen in the
next subsection of this paper. (It may be that the function of these twelve site-
categories was merely to group the holy sites into ten or twelve in the Heva-
jratantra.) Since the list of holy sites as shown in TABLE 6 was given by Lord
(bhagavat) in answer to a question posed by Vajragarbha concerning the loca-
tions where the ritual assembly (meld, ganacakra) is performed by magical fe-
male beings, 53 the purpose of this list should be understood as selecting and
listing the sites deemed appropriate for performing ritual assemblies with the
magical female beings. As mentioned in the first section of this paper (1.2.2), the
Hevajratantra and other scriptures belonging to the Yoginitantra tradition of-
ten uphold the idea that holy sites are places where local magical female beings
gather. It can be assumed that it is this idea that lays behind the compilation of
the Hevajra list in question.
The purpose of the Hevajra list mentioned above seems to link to the char-
-530-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
acteristics of this system as follows, (i) Among the three dimensions, this system
has only dimension (A), (ii) The list as shown in TABLE 6 includes not only spe-
cific sites but also general places such as the periphery area of a village, a place
where preta assemble, the seashore, and so forth. Some scholars say that this is
the unsystematic aspect of the Hevajra list of holy sites. However, we should not
jump to such conclusion. From an anthropological viewpoint, these places can
be regarded as liminal places, effective for performing ritual gatherings. Thus, it
should be stressed that this form of listing sacred sites is logical in the context of
the purpose of this scripture.
4.2 Expansions of the Hevajra system
Let us investigate the spread and development of the Hevajra-system. TABLE
7, TABLE 8, and TABLE 9 summarize the system of holy sites preached
in the Samputodbhavatantra, 54 a scripture belonging to both the Hevajra
and the Samvara cycles, and interpretations given in its commentary the
Amndyamanjari, 55 that introduced in the Mahdmudratilakatantra, 56 one
of the last scriptures belonging to the Hevajra cycle, and that found in the
Dakdrnavatantra, 57 one of the last scriptures belonging to the Samvara cycle,
respectively. Instructions given in some commentaries will also be investigated.
The main developments that occurred in the systems of the second typologi-
cal tradition that can be observed in the texts mentioned above are as follows,
(i) The realignment of the list of holy sites.
The Mahdmudratilakatantra borrows many sites in almost the same or-
der from the list found in the Hevajratantra. In the Mahdmudratilakatantra,
Odyana has an alias name: Vajrapitha. At the same time, some of the general
sites such as the marginal regions of a village, a town, or a garden, found in the
Hevajra list are replaced by specific sites.
The influence of the system of the first typological tradition can be dis-
cerned in the following realignments. [1] In the Mahdmudratilakatantra, each
of the pitha and the upapitha consists of four sites, and each of the other site-
categories consists of two sites. [2] The compilers of the Dakdrnavatantra sought
a compromise between the list of holy sites of the first typological tradition and
that of the Hevajratantra by employing the system of twelve site-categories,
which forms the framework for the system of the second typological tradition.
In the Dakdrnavatantra, all twenty-four sites classified into the first six site-
categories from (1) to (6) are identical with the twenty-four sites of the first tra-
dition, and the other twenty-four sites classified into the second group of six
site-categories numbered (7) to (12) seem to be derived from the sites listed in
the Hevajratantra. [3] The compilers of these two scriptures regarded the ten
-531-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 7 (The Samputodbhavatantra)
Pithddi
Holy sites
(1)
Pitha
Jalandhara. Oddiayana. Pollagiri. Arbuda.
(2)
Upapltha
Godavari. Ramesvara. Devikota. Malava.
(3)
Ksetra
Kamarupa. Odra.
(4)
Upaksetra
Trisakuni. Kosala.
(5)
Chandoha
Kaliriga. Lampaka.
(6)
Upacchandoha
Kancl. Himalaya.
(7)
Meldpaka
Pretadhivasinl. Grhadevata
(8)
Upameldpaka
Saurastra. Suvarnadvipa.
(9)
Smasdna
Nagara.' Sindhu.
(10)
Upasmasdna
Maru. Kulata.
(11)
Pilava
Karunya.'"' Karmarapataka. Harikela, which is lo-
cated at the center of the salty ocean. Vindhya.
Kaumar apurika . IV)
(12)
UpapTlava
Places close to the pilava-sites.
Smasdna
A place where pretas assemble (i.e. graveyard).
Seashore.
Upasmasdna
Garden. The edge of a pond.
[Note] i) The Amndyamahjarl comments that Pollagiri, Kollagiri, Pulliramalaya, and
Vajrapitha (rdo rjehi gnas) are synonymous terms, ii) Nagara means Pataliputra,
according to the Amnayamahjari. iii) Karunya is Karunyapataka, according to the
Amndyamanjari. iv) The Amnayamanjarl comments that Caritra and the periphery
area of a village or town are also regarded as belonging to the site-category pilava.
site-categories beginning with pitha and ending with upasmasdna as a set of
site-categories in the tradition of the first typological system, and posited the re-
maining two site-categories pilava and upapllava after this set. [4] The compil-
ers of the Samputodbhavatantra aimed at a compromise between the list of holy
sites of the first typological tradition and that of the Hevajratantra in a manner
different from in the case of the Dakarnavatantra. In the Samputodbhavatantra,
the ten site-categories from (1) to (10) and the sites which are classified into
these categories coincide with those in the first typological tradition. After these
ten categories, the site-categories pilava and upapllava are posited, and again
smasdna and upasmasdna follow these. The sites grouped into these last four
site-categories have deep association with those classified into the same four site-
categories in the Hevajratantra.
(ii) The internalization of holy sites: dimension (C) in the second typological tra-
dition.
The Mahamudratilakatantra reveals internal counterparts of the external
holy sites in a manner different from that of the first typological tradition as
-532-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
TABLE 8 (The Mahamudratilakatantra)
Pithadi
External holy sites, and their internal counterparts
(1)
Pitha
Oddiyana/Vajrapitha (head). Jalandhara (topknot).
Purnagiri/Pulhra (top of the head). Kamarupa (be-
tween the eyebrows).
(2)
Upapitha
Malava (tip of the nose). Nagara (ears). Sindhu
(eyes). Singhala (lotus).
(3)
Ksetra
Munmuni (jaw). Devikota (throat).
(4)
Upaksetra
Kulata (back-bone). Arbuda (breasts).
(5)
Chandoha
Godavari (navel). Harikela (heart).
(6)
Upacchandoha
KancI (center of the sex organ). Lampaka (secret
cirle).
(7)
Meldpaka
Karmarapataka (protruding portion of the sex organ).
Camikaradvipa (anus).
(8)
Upamelapaka
Kohkana (thighs). Vindhya (knees).
(9)
Smasana
A place where pretas assemble (shanks). Seashore
(feet).
(10)
Upasmasana
Caritra (toes). Kaumarapura (big toes).
(11)
Pilava
Kasmira (all limbs). Kairatamandala (soles).
(12)
UpapTlava
Nepala (lower region of the abdomen where three in-
ner channels cross with one another). Karnakubja
(hip).
shown in round brackets in the table. This shows that the system of the second
typological tradition organized in the Hevajratantra had developed into a system
that also encompassed dimension (C).
Indrabodhi's Samputatilakatantratlka explains internal counterparts of
the external sites of the Samputodbhavatantra. 58 According to Indrabodhi, the
internal counterparts of the twenty-four external sites from pitha to the first
upasmasana are identical with those of the first typological tradition shown in
TABLE2. The external sites from pilava to the second upasmasana correspond
to eight petals of a lotus of one's heart where eight inner channels reside. The
influence of the first typological tradition can be discerned in Indrabodhi's
interpretation. 59
(hi) The one-to-one correspondence between the twelve site-categories and the
spiritual stages.
The one-to-one correspondence between site-categories and spiritual stages
was, as investigated before, one of the characteristics of the system of the first ty-
pological tradition and was not clearly observed in the system of holy sites of the
Hevajratantra. However, commentaries such as the Yogaratnamala (YRM), 60
-533-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 9 (The Dakarnavatantra)
Plthadi
Holy sites
(1)
Pitha
Purnagiri. Jalandhara. Odyayana. Arbuda.
(2)
UpapTtha
Godavari. Ramesvara. Devikota. Malava.
(3)
Ksetra
Kamarupa. Odra. Trisakuni. Kosala.
(4)
Upaksetra
Kalinga. Lampaka. Kanci. Himalaya.
(5)
Chandoha
Pretapuri. Grhadevi. Saurastra. Suvarnadvipa.
(6)
Upacchandoha
Nagara. Sindhu. Maru. Kuluta.
(7)
Meldpaka
The bank of a river. A garden. The ocean. A place
where four roads meet.
(8)
Upamelapaka
The top of a mountain. The center of a village. A
mountain where a mass of maidens inhabit. The
land of one's own lineage.
(9)
Smasana
Munmuni. Caritra. Harikela. Mayapuri.
(10)
Upasmasana
The base of a mountain. A dead village. The
house of divinities. Karnatapataka.
(11)
Pllava
The periphery area of a village. Kuhkara. Ka-
rmarapataka. A place where magical females as-
semble.
(12)
UpapTlava
The ancentor forest. The side of a house. A lake.
A pond of blue lotuses.
the Muktdvall, 61 the Samputatilakatantratlkd (STTT), 62 the Amndyamanjarl
(AM), 63 and the Plthddinirnaya (PAN) 64 introduce the idea of the one-to-one cor-
respondence between the twelve site-categories and the spiritual stages into the
systems of the Hevajratantra (HVT), the Samputodbhavatantra (SUT), and/or
the Mahamudratilakatantra (MMTT) as shown in TABLE 10. 65 The Muktdvall
explains the one-to-one correspodence in question briefly as follows: the twelve
site-categories in the Hevajratantra correspond to the twelve spiritual stages
beginning with the stage Adhimukticarya and ending with the stage Saman-
taprabha.
As examined above, the compilers of later scriptures and commentaries at-
tempted to elaborate the system of holy sites of the second typological tradition
as introduced in the Hevajratantra. The compilers often borrowed ideas from the
first typological tradition in these elaborations.
5 Holy sites of the third typological tradition
The system of holy sites of the third typological tradition differs from those of
the first and the second traditions in that, at least in its early stage, neither
the ten or twelve site-categories nor the idea of the one-to-one correspondence
-534-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
TABLE 10
HVT
YRM
PAN
Pitha
Pramuditd
Upapitha
Vimald
Ksetra
Arcismati
Prabhakari
Upaksetra
Prabhdkari
Arcismati
Chandoha
Sudurjayd
Upacchandoha
Abhimukhi
Melapaka
Durafigamd
Upamelapaka
Acald
Pilava
Sddhumati
—
Upapilava
Dharmameghd
—
Smasana
Samantaprabhd
Sddhumati
Upasmasana
Nirupamd
Dharmameghd
MMTT
PAN
Pit ha
Pramuditd
Upapitha
Vimald
Ksetra
Prabhdkari
Upaksetra
Arcismati
Chandoha
Sudurjayd
Upacchandoha
Abhimukhi
Melapaka
Durafigamd
Upamelapaka
Acald
Smasana
Sddhumati
Upasmasana
Dharmameghd
Pilava
—
Upapilava
—
SUT
STTT
AM
Pit ha
Pramuditd 1 Danapdramitd
Upapitha
Vimald 1 Silapdramita
Ksetra
Prabhdkari 1 Ksdntipdramitd
Upaksetra
Arcismati 1 Viryapdramitd
Chandoha
Abhimukhi 1 Dhydnapdramitd
Sudurjaya 1 Dhyanaparamita
Upacchandoha
Sudurjayd 1 Prajnapdramita
Abhimukhi 1 Prajnapdramita
Melapaka
Durafigamd 1 Updyapdramitd
Upamelapaka
Acald 1 Pranidhipdramita
Smasana
Sddhumati 1 Balapdramitd
Upasmasana
Dharmameghd 1 Jhdnapdramitd
Pilava
Adhimukticarya
Adhimukticarya
Upapilava
Samantaprabhd
Smasana
Samantaprabhd
Upasmasana
-535-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
between these site-categories and the spiritual stages served as its framework.
The system of holy sites of this tradition was especially influential in the Kaula
(or Kula) tradition of the early medieval age and the later Sakta tradition in the
case of Saiva tantrism and in the Samvara cycle in the case of Buddhist tantrism.
5.1 Holy sites in the Kaula and the Samvara traditions
The Kaula Kubjikamatatantra 66 and the Samvara Vajradakatantra 67 give simi-
lar lists of holy sites. They can be summarized as shown in TABLE 11 and 12. In
both systems, pairs of deities composed of a goddess (devi ) and a land-protector
god (ksetrapala) are thought to reside at these sites. Information on the abodes
of the above goddesses is also given. Although these scriptures give the weapons,
features, and births/lineages of the goddesses, I have omitted this information in
both tables in order to avoid unnecessary details.
It is most probable that the compilers of the Vajradakatantra borrowed the
list of holy sites from the Kubjikamatatantra or some similar source and modified
TABLE 11 (The Kubjikamatatantra)
Holy sites
Goddesses
Land-protectors
Abodes
1
Attahasa
Saumyasya
Mahaghanta
kadamba-tree
2
Caritra
Krsna
Mahabala
karanja-tree
3
Kolagiri
Mahalaksmi
Agnika
naga-tree
4
Jayanti
Jvalamukhi
Mahapreta
nimba-tree
5
Ujjayini
Mahamaya
Mahakala
asvattha-tree
6
Prayaga
Vayuvega
Pavana
udumbara-tree
7
Varanasi
Samkari
Samkara
tala-tree
8
Srikota
Karnamoti
Hetuka
vata-tree
9
Viraja
Ambika
Anala
—
10
Airudi
Agnivaktra
Ghantarava
—
11
Hastinapura
Pingaksi
Mahajangha
—
12
Elapura
Kharasya
Gajakarna
—
13
Kasmari
Gokarna
Tadijjarigha
—
14
Maru
KramanI
Karala
—
15
Nagara or Caitrakaccha
—
Romajangha
—
16
Pundravardhana
Camunda
Kumbhaka
—
17
Parastira
Prasannasya
Trijata
—
18
Prsthapura
Vidyunmukhi
Ghanarava
—
19
Kuhudi
Mahabala
Ulkamukha
—
20
Sopara
Agnivaktra
Pisitasa
—
21
Ksirika
Lokamatr
Mahameru
—
22
Mayapuri
Kampim
Bhimanana
—
23
Amratikesvara
Putana
Mahakrodha
—
24
Rajagrha
Bhagnanasa
Mahakarna
—
-536-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
TABLE 12 (The Vajradakatantra)
Holy sites
Goddesses
Land-protectors
Abodes
1
Attahasa
Saumyamukha
Mahaghanta
kadamba-tree
2
Kollagiri
Mahalaksmi
Agnimukha
top of a mountain
—
Jvalamukhi
Mahavrata
nimba-tree
3
Dharani
Samkari
Urdhvakesa
tdla-tree
4
Devikota
Karnamoti
Hetuka
vata-tree
5
Viraja
Ambika
_o
dmra-tree
6
Erudi
Agnimukhi
Ghantarava
kdficana-tree
7
Pura
Pirigala
Mahajahgha
jatl-tree
8
Elapura
Kharastha
Gajakarna
—
9
Kasmira
Gokarni
Nadijahgha
top of a mountain
10
Maru
Kramanl
Karala
big desert
11
Nagara
Vetala
Romajahgha
i;e£ra-tree
12
Paundravardhana
Camunda
Kumbha
—
13
Jayanti
Prasannasya
Trijata
divine palace
14
Prsthapura
Vidyunmukhi
Ghantarava
—
15
Sopara
Pisitasana"'
—
sdlmali-tree
16
Caritra
Karanjavasini
Mahaghanta'"'
karafija-tree
17
Odyayana
Guhya
Mahanada' V)
asoka-tree
18
Jalandhara
Candalini
Janeta
kanaka-tree
19
Ksirika
Lokamatr
Mahameru
sala-tree
20
Mayapura
Bhima v)
Bhima
bhuta-tree
21
Amraka
Putana
Mahavrata
ddru-tree
22
Rajagrha
Vipanna
Mahakarna"
—
23
Bhota
Sahaja 1 "
Bhoga™
top of a moutain
24
Malava
Seka
Samapumsasvara
madhu-tree
[Note] i) Or Anala. ii) Or Agnivaktra. iii) Or Mahabala. iv) Or Mahabala. v) Or
Kamini. vi) Or Jhillirava. vii) Or Bhoga. viii) Or Sudurjaya.
the list according to their Buddhist worldview as can be seen in the integration
of the Buddhist site Bhota (Tibet) into the list. 68
5.2 The development of the system in the Kula stream
The Kubjikamatatantra proclaims that practitioners can become stainless (nir-
mala) by conducting pilgrimages to holy sites or reciting verses in praise of these
sites. 69 This suggests that the system of holy sites in the Kubjikamatatantra cov-
ers dimensions (A) and (B). In the Saiva tradition, the list of holy sites similar
to that of the Kubjikamatatantra (or to the first eight sites, the eight cremation
-537-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 13 (The Tantraloka)
[I] Attahasa (tuft of the head)
[3] Kaulagiri (ears)
[5] UjjayinI (eye-brows)
[7] Varanasi (heart)
[9] Viraja (throat)
[II] Hala = Alipura (navel)
[13] Marukosa (sex organ)
[15] Paundravardhana (left buttock)
[17] Purastlra (left thigh)
[19] Sopana (left knee)
[21] Ksiraka (left shank)
[2] Caritra (cranial fontanelle)
[4] Jayanti (nostrils)
[6] Prayaga (mouth)
[8] Sripitha (shoulders)
[10] Edabhi (belly)
[12] Gosruti = Gokarna (testicles)
[14] Nagara (right buttock)
[16] Elapura (right thigh)
[18] Kudyakesi (right knee)
[20] Mayapu = Mayapuri (right shank)
[22] Amrata = Amratakesvara (right ankle)
[23] Nrpasadmam = Rajagrha (left ankle) [24] Vairinci = Snsaila (soles).
grounds, of this list) appears in the Jayadrathayamala, the Brahmayamala, the
Nisisamcaratantra, and the 29th chapter of the Tantraloka dealing with Kaula
doctrine as argued by A. Sanderson, M. Dyczkowski, and J. Dupuche. 70 The ex-
tended versions of this system can be found in several scriptures of the Sakta
tradition compiled in later ages as suggested by D.C. Sircar. 71 It seems that the
tradition on the system of holy sites as seen in the Kubjikamatatantra became a
big stream in the Sakta tradition including the Kaula tradition.
Among these works except the later texts, the 29th chapter of the Tantraloka
explains the form of this system in dimension (C). It is summarized in TABLE
13. 72 The names of body parts found in round brackets in this table represent
the internal counterparts to the external sites. A place-name after an equal mark
refers to the alias name for the site as given in Jayaratha's commentary. The list
of body parts and their corresponding external holy sites in this system differs
from that of the Buddhist systems as discussed in the previous sections.
5.3 The development of the system in the Samvara cycle
The Vajradakatantra proclaims that the magical females residing in these holy
sites, who perform ritual assemblage every night, bring the practitioners many
kinds of accomplishments. 73 This is the myth which legitimates the efficacy of
the practice of the twenty-four holy sites in question. However, the scripture
does not explain how to practice these holy sites. Hence, it is not clear which
dimension these holy sites have.
In the Bauddha (Samvara) tradition, a similar system can be found in the
Dakarnavatantra 74 and the Amnayamanjari, 15 two works composed after the
compilation of the Vajradakatantra. 16 Indeed the compilers of these two works
attempted to elaborate on the list found in the Vajradakatantra. However, no
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
qualitative development can be detected.
The Pithadinirnaya is the only text that explains dimension (C) of the sys-
tem introduced in the above texts. The author of this work, Sakyaraksita (14th-
15th centuries), worked during the last stage of Indian Buddhism. This means
that the development of dimension (C) in the third typological tradition in Bud-
dhism occurred later than in Saivism. The Pithadinirnaya gives clear instruc-
tions that advanced practitioners of lower rank should seek to internally visu-
alize the holy sites of the Vajradakatantra in the same manner as in the first
typological tradition (e.g. Attahasa corresponds to the head, and the goddess
and the god assigned to this site are identical with the inner channel running
through the head and the set of fingernails and teeth, respectively 77 ) The bodily
parts and the inner channels are related to the ten spiritual stages and the ten
perfections respectively in the system of the first typological tradition. Therefore,
it may be stated that Sakyaraksita attempted to integrate the Mahayanic mean-
ing as well as the internal aspect found in the first typological tradition into the
system of the third typological tradition.
As mentioned before, the Buddhist Samvara cycle introduced this system
through contact with the Kaula tradition. However, as can be seen from the
discussion above, the compilers of the Samvara scriptures attempted to develop
this system in a manner different from the Kaula system.
6 Holy sites in the fourth typological tradition
The system of the fourth typological tradition has only an internal dimension, i.e.
dimension (C). This system is a mixture of three theories: (i) the theory of holy
sites, (ii) the theory of inner circles (cakra), and (iii) the theory of the circulation
of the vital wind (prana etc.), or in other words, the theory of the inner wheel of
time (kalacakra). A system which is similar in structure to this one appears in
the Kalacakratantra and its commentary, the Vimalaprabha. 18
First, we will focus our investigation on the connection between theories (i)
and (ii) in the system of the fourth typological tradition. After that, we will
proceed to examine any connections between these and theory (iii).
6.1 Holy sites and inner circles
TABLE 14 shows the system of holy sites of the fourth typological tradition in-
troduced in the Dakarnavatantra. 79 The same system can also be found in the
Yoginijalatantra, 80 the compilation of which is later than the Dakarnavatantra.
These scriptures were the last ones to be added to the Samvara cycle. This sug-
gests that the system of the fourth typological tradition appeared in the last
stage of the Samvara tradition.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
TABLE 14 (The Dakarnavatantra)
(A) Sixty-four inner channels running through nirmanacakra! )
(I) Madhyadesi (2) Kalingi (3) Odri (4) Karnataki (5) Sari (6)
Saurastri (7) Malay! (8) Vangi (9) Dravidi (10) Catalingaki
(II) Malavi (12) MaharatthI (= Maharastri) (13) Varendri
(14) Kamarupini (15) Dahali (16) Tavidesi (17) Bhadari (18)
RadhamagadhI (19) Tirasutti (20) Daddarandi (21) Nepali (22)
Rasavasini (23) Radhi (24) Tikkari (25) Vangali (26) Khadi (27)
HarikelakI (28) Suvarnadvipi (29) Simhali (30) Domadi (31) Kat-
toraki (32) Sindhuhimalayi (33) Budi (34) Kuluti (35) Jadari [or
Jadadhari] (36) Path! (37) Jajjabuti (38) Varum (39) Odiyani (40)
Lampakaki (41) Jalandhari (42) Arbudi (43) Kasmiri (44) Kausali
(45) Kaiici (46) Jayanti (47) Trisakum (48) Cambhi (49) Luhari
(50) Purarohiki (51) Minimum (52) Kambojaki (53) Bhattoliki (54)
Grhadevati (55) Pretapurl (56) Babhari (57) Pelavi (58) Upapelavi
(59)SmasanI (60) Upasmasam (61) Mahodadhitati (62) Khasi (63)
Mlecchi (64) Sarvadesaki
(B) Eight inner channels running through dharmacakra:
(1) Prayagi (2) Devikoti (3) Ujjayini (4) Mahalaksmi (5) Jvalamu-
khi (6) Siddhasimbhali (7) Mahili (8) Kaumaripauriki
[Note] i) Nirmanacakra is an inner circle of the shape of a lotus with sixty -four petals.
This inner circle is visualized in one's abdomen, ii) Dharmacakra is an inner circle of the
shape of a lotus with eight petals. This inner circle is visualized at one's heart region.
The Dakarnavatantra states that the inner circles (cakra) have the form
of lotus flowers and the inner channels run through the petals of these inner
circles, which agrees with the general doctrin on inner circle found in many Bud-
dhist tantric scriptures. The inner circles fitted with the inner channels serve
as a framework for the system of the fourth typological tradition. Based on this
framework, this system is constituted of seventy-two magical female beings that
are assumed to be connected to seventy-two external holy sites. Holy sites per se
do not appear in this system. This is the system of holy sites in which holy sites
are present only latently. The seventy-two names listed in TABLE 14 are those
of the inner channels identified with the seventy -two magical female beings that
are in turn connected to the seventy-two external holy sites. Male divinities do
not appear in this system. The names of these female beings are derived from
the external holy sites with which they are thought to be connected. The terms
pilava, upapllava, smasana, and upasmasana, which are used in the other ty-
pological traditions as site-categories, are regarded as vast sanctuaries which do
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
not differ from individual sites in quality in the system in question. (See (57),
(58), (59) and (60) of (A) in TABLE 14.)
6.2 The circulation of the vital wind
This system is also characterized by the theory of the circulation (literally, pas-
sage, samkranti) of the vital wind in one's body. The circulation of the vital wind
in the body is one of the physiological activities that maintain one's life operated
through one's breathing. The Dakarnavatantra explains the function of sixty of
the sixty-four inner channels running from the inner circle named nirmanacakra
(i.e. the inner circle situated in one's abdomen) in the following way 81
One day consists of sixty ghati (=ghatika), which equals twelve samkranti.
Hence, one samkranti equals five ghati. The sixty of the sixty-four inner chan-
nels lead from the nirmanacakra to the twelve joints (presumably, two shoulder
joints, two cubital joints, two wrist joints, two hip joints, two knee joints, and two
ankle joints). These sixty inner channels correspond to sixty ghati, i.e. one day.
Hence, one inner channel represents one ghati, and five inner channels connect-
ing to one joint represent five ghati, i.e. one samkranti. The vital wind passes
through the five inner channels connecting to one joint and passes through this
joint in one samkranti. In the same manner, the vital wind passes through the
other eleven joints by way of the other fifty-five inner channels connected to these
joints in eleven samkranti. Thus, the vital wind passes one's twelve joints in one
day through the sixty inner channels leading from the nirmanacakra to these
joints.
The Dakarnavatantra does not explain how the following inner channels
function in this circulation of the vital wind: the other four inner channels, which
are described as running from the nirmanacakra to the opening of the navel, the
sex organ, and both ribs 82 and the eight inner channels running through the
inner circle named dharmacakra (i.e. the inner circle situated in one's heart re-
gion). This is all this text says about this system. However, as these seventy-two
inner channels are identical with magical female beings connected with external
holy sites and since sixty of these inner channels are also regarded as passage-
ways for the vital wind which circulates in one's body in line with the passage
of time, it may be inferred that the system of the fourth typological tradition
implies the idea that the rhythmical circulation of the vital wind in one's body
is identical to the performance of external pilgrimages in order to perform yogic
intercourse with magical female beings.
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Conclusion: a comparison with the structure of the orthodox
system
We started our discussion by clarifying that, in the eyes of the compilers of the
scriptures, the basis of the system of holy sites in Samvara Buddhism is formed
by a list of names of holy sites rather than specific localities themselves. The
list of names of Samvara holy sites fulfills the function of providing a symbolic
framework along which individual sites are arranged according to the compiler's
wishes to a certain extent. This is suggested by the fact that the compilers of the
scriptures did not always reach a consensus on the actual geographical locations
and features of the holy sites in question and by the fact that there were even
more liberal views concerning the identity and geographical location of the holy
sites in question that each site had multiple identities concerning their belong-
ing site-categories and any site where sacred beings reside could be a Samvara
holy site. We further clarified that the list of names of holy sites and the sym-
bolic meaning which the list provides underwent gradual changes in successive
compilations of scriptures.
Based on this view that the list of names of holy sites forms the basis of the
system of holy sites, two levels and three dimensions can be discerned within the
system of holy sites: level (i), which consists of the system of practice comprised
of three dimensions (i.e. (A) external holy sites as geographical locations, (B) ex-
ternal holy sites seen as separated from specific locations, and (C) internal holy
sites) and level (ii) which consists of a mythological world-view based on the con-
cept of holy sites. These two levels are deeply interconnected. The mythological
world-view holds that this world consists of holy sites which function as either
abodes of pairs of female and male deities or places where magical female beings
reside and gather. This mythological world-view legitimates the efficacy of the
system of practice centered on holy sites and the percieved efficacy through this
legitimization reproduces analogous myths or its extended version in successive
compilation of scriptures.
Among the four major typological traditions of holy sites, the first tradi-
tion was the most popular and the most influential one in the Samvara cycle.
On the level of the system of practice, the system takes on the form of a three-
dimensional mandala carrying traditional Mahayana doctrines as its meaning
such as the ten spiritual stages and the ten perfections. The meaning which this
mandala has became more elaborate in later texts. On the level of the mytho-
logical world-view, the system takes on the narrative outlined above and the
narrative in a version of it revealed by Naropada, which recounts the creation of
the Samvara system during the Kali age.
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
The mythological world-views expounded by the other three systems of holy
sites hold that holy sites in this world are abodes of pairs of male and female
deities or places where magical female beings reside and gather. No attempt
at elaboration, as can be observed in Naropada's version of the first typological
tradition, can be found in the remaining three traditions. On the level of the
system of practice, the system of the second typological tradition, whose earliest
form has only dimension (A), and that of the third typological tradition, whose
earliest form lacks descriptions that specify the dimension to be practiced, were
reorganized into a system incorporating Mahayanic concepts such as the ten or
twelve spiritual stages and also covering dimension (C). The first typological tra-
dition often played an influential role in the reorganization of the systems of the
second and the third typological traditions mentioned above.
The system of holy sites introduced in the Samvara cycle and its related
scriptural cycles can be called the esoteric system of holy sites. On the other
hand, the system of the eight caitya sites, namely the Eight Great Sites
(astamahasthana), which took shape as an extended system of the ancient
Buddhist system of the four or six caitya sites, 83 can be regarded as the orthodox
system of holy sites in Buddhism. 84 Let us compare the orthodox system in
the post-Gupta era and the esoteric one in terms of the two levels and three
dimensions of holy sites in order to deepen the understanding of the esoteric
system.
First, as in the case of the esoteric system of holy sites, it is possible to see
that the list of names of eight holy sites or frequently the list of eight deeds
or miracles performed by the Buddha connected with the eight sites functions to
form the basis of the system of holy sites in the case of the orthodox system of holy
sites in the post-Gupta era. It is suspicious whether all of these eight sites fully
functioned as actual pilgrimage sites in this era. This is suggested by the Ta-
tang Hsi-yu-chi of Hsuan-Tsang, a Chinese Buddhist practitioner who traveled
in India and middle Asia in the seventh century. According to this work, many of
the Buddhist temples had already been ruined in some of these eight sites and
only a small number of Buddhist monks were there when Hsuan-Tsang visited
these sites. However, the list of names of eight holy sites or the list of eight deeds
performed by the Buddha connected with the eight sites often played important
roles among the practitioners and devotees even in this era. It is known from the
fact that they composed hymns for the eight sites in question 85 and made icons
whose motif was the eight deeds of the Buddha in these eight sites.
In the case of the first level (i.e. the system of practice), the orthodox system
appears as a set of pilgrimage sites to be visited, to be praised in verse, or to be
represented in icon in order to accumulate religious merits. Thus, the orthodox
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
system has dimensions (A) and (B) on its first level. There seems no absolute
hierarchy between these two dimensions. On the other hand, the normative type
of the esoteric system, i.e. the system of the first typological tradition, covers
all three dimensions. There existed the view in the esoteric tradition that the
practice in dimension (B) is higher than that in dimension (A) and that the prac-
tice in dimension (C), which the orthodox system is lacking, is superior to that
in dimension (B). It should be noted that the esoteric system of the fourth ty-
pological tradition only consists of dimension (C). At the same time, however, it
was proclaimed that there is no hierarchy between these three dimensions if one
attempts to attain the true aim of the practice of holy sites i.e. to understand the
Mahayanic meanings which the system of holy sites carries.
With regard to the second level (the mythological world-view), the idea that
the historical Buddha and the mythological Buddha performed his main religious
deeds or miracles at the eight holy sites legitimizes the existence of the orthodox
system of holy sites. Stupas or caityas in these sites would have reinforced this
legitimization. On the other hand, in the esoteric system, the divine beings play-
ing a central role in the mythology of the holy sites are not the Buddha himself
nor his stupas or caityas but pairs of male and female deities, magical female be-
ings, and/or sacral rocks of various shapes. This difference between the orthodox
and esoteric system is related to the fact that the lists of holy sites in the esoteric
system are syncretic in the sense that they have incorporated the systems of holy
sites of the Sakta or Saiva traditions, where female divinities play an important
role.
Notes
1 This paper is an extended and improved version of the chapter 2 of my book published
in 2007 [Sugiki 2007].
2 For the Eight Great Sites, see Bagchi 1941 and Okano 1998: D.7.2.A. The eight holy
sites appearing in Nagarjuna's Astamahasthanacaityastotra (a version of TTP: Tohoku
1133) and the Fo shuo pa ta ling t'a ming bao king (Ch: Taisho 1685) can be identified
as Lumbim/Kapilavastu, Buddhagaya, Varanasi, Sravasti, Samkasa, Rajagrha, Vaisali,
and Kusinagari. Harsadeva's Astamahdsthdnacaitydvaddna and other Nagarjuna's
Astamahasthanacaityastotra (a version of Tib: Tohoku 1134) also introduce eight sites
of the Orthodox Buddhist tradition. However, it is difficult to identify two of the eight
sites in these texts. The former text can be read as intending Lumbim/Kapilavastu,
Buddhagaya, Varanasi, Sravasti, Samkasa, Kusinagari, and two other sites that are
hard to indentify. The latter text seems to preach Buddhagaya, Lumbim/Kapilavastu,
Varanasi, Sravasti, Kusinagari, and two other sites that are difficult to identify.
3 See TABLE 3 of this paper.
"The Svayambhupurdna, SKT ed: p.176, 1.15-p.l77, 1.6.
5 Yoshizaki 1997.
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
6 See TALBE 14 of this paper.
7 See TABLE 3 of this paper.
8 The Yoginljalatantra, SKT ms: Baroda 13253, 23a2, Matsunami 313, 51bl.
smasanam pataliputre smasanam sindhum eva ca I Here, the term nagara is replaced
by the word pataliputra.
9 See TABLE 6 and note ii) of this table of this paper.
10 See TABLE 7 and note ii) of this table of this paper.
n See TABLE 3 of this paper.
12 Sanderson 1995: 95.
13 See TABLE 3 of this paper. See also the word liyul in Chandra Das's Tibetan-English
Dictionary.
"See TABLE 8 of this paper.
15 See TABLE 7 and note i) of this table of this paper. The Samputodbhavatantra per se
does not use the term Vajrapltha in this context.
16 The investigations conducted by M. Dyczkowski [Dyczkowski 2001: map 9] and R.
Davidson [Davidson 2002: 209] regarding the holy sites in question err in trying to pin-
point a specific geographical location for each individual site without considering the flex-
ibility that I mentioned. They also err in overly depending on sources which do not belong
to the Samvara cycle and its relevant ones in identifying the geographical locations for
these sites.
17 'The Amnayamanjarl, TTP: Otani 2328, 168a6-a7. The Plthadinirnaya, TTP: Tohoku
1606, 132a7-bl. (For this part of the Plthadinirnaya, see also Davidson 2002: 210-211.)
Abhayakaragupta and Sakyaraksita state that each site has multiple identities concern-
ing its belonging site-category. For example, the site A is classified into the site-category
pitha according to some scriptures but the same site A is grouped into the different site-
category ksetra according to other scriptures. The text-compilers did not always reach a
consensus on the matter which site-categories individual sites are to be classified into.
w The Amnayamanjarl, TTP: Otani 2328, 168bl-b5. The Plthadinirnaya, TTP: Tohoku
1606, 133b6-b7. (For this part of the Amnayamanjarl, see also Shizuka 2007: 190-
191.) This statement, which appears in the Vimalaprabha according to Abhayakaragupta,
seems to be in line with the idea frequently seen in esoteric scriptures such as the Saiva
Kubjikamatatantra [SKT ed: 23.104c-109b] that holy sites are not merely locales where
ground and water merely exist but are made sacred by the fact that they are sites inhab-
ited by holy beings such as a guru or a religious master. The references to Tibet and China
in this statement seem to be based on the one hand on the teachings concerning holy sites
found in the Samvara Vdjraddkatantra, its related scriptures [see the fifth section and
TABLE 12 of this paper], and Naropada's work mentioned above (Yul hi bcu bshihi rgyu
mtshan bstan pa) [see Pretapuri in TABLE 3 of this paper], which regard Tibet (Bhota) as
one of the Samvara holy sites, and on the other hand on the idea expressed in the same
work ascribed to Naropada, which identifies Suvarnadvipa with east China.
19 The Amnayamanjarl, TTP: Otani 2328, 169b6. The reason for my modification of
Abhayakaragupta's terms for the three dimensions is as follows. The texts of the Samvara
tradition often describe the holy sites practiced in dimension (A) and those performed in
dimension (C) also as a mandala or a wheel of mandala, by which term Abhayakaragupta
signifies holy sites in dimension (B). It is necessary to avoid the confusion. Further, as
mentioned, the discussion made by Abhayakaragupta on this topic is brief. We need to
survey the instructions on the practice of holy sites given in other texts in order to clarify
the base structure of the systems of holy sites in question. For these reasons, I devised
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
encompassing terms for the three dimensions of the practice centered on holy sites.
20 Sircar 1948: 32. Wayman 1995: 135. The term "imaginary Tantric lands" is Way-
man's. Sircar, through the analysis of Sakta sites, states "Devi and Bhairava were often
fabricated by the writers and the association of a tirtha with one of Satfs limbs was also
determined usually by their individual imagination," "The fact that in many cases entire
countries are mentioned as Pithas suggests that the writers had only vague ideas about
some of the tirthas and often took resort to imagination," "That medieval writers on the
subject of the Pithas took the greatest liberty in these respects is ..."
21 The Cakrasamvaratantra, SKT ed (restored text): 41.4c-18. For the Hevajratantra
and other scriptures, see the third, the fourth, and the fifth sections of this paper. The
distinction between the human females who are believed to be magical female beings dis-
cussed here and those refered to in the first subsection of the first section of this paper
is as follows: the former are the magical female beings appearing in the mythological
context and the latter are those appearing in the context of the explanations on geograph-
ical locations of holy sites. However, actually, it is often difficult to distinguish these two
contexts because the scriptures are not always nervous about this distinction.
22 For Ghantapada's view, see Sakurai 1996: 300, 307-310. For Krsna's view, see his
Vasantatilakd, SKT ed: 1.5-7.
23 The Amnayamanjari, TTP: Otani 2328, 168a8-169b7.
24 The Pithadinirnaya, TTP: Tohoku 1606, 136b4-137a4, 133b5-135b7.
25 As mentioned before, Abhayakaragupta uses the terms phyi rol ("external"), dkyil
hkhor gyi hkhor lo ("wheel of mandala"), and lus ("body") for my terms dimension (A),
dimension (B), and dimension (C), respectively.
26 The Abhidhanottaratantra chaps. 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18 may be seen as preaching the
matured form of the first typological tradition as summarised in TABLE 2. The large part
of chapter 14 is quite similar to Luyipada's Cakrasamvarabhisamaya.
27 The Yoginisamcdratantra, SKT ed: 4.1-4, 5.7-17, 5.20, 11.1.
28 The Vajradakatantra, SKT ed: Tsuda 1973, (28)-(30), and Sugiki 2003a, 14.1-19 (=
pp.(77)-(8D).
29 The Abhidhanottaratantra, SKTms: IASWRI-100, 54a3-55a4/Matsunami 10, 57b5-
58b6 / Matsunami 12, 66a4-67bl.
30 The Varahyabhidhanottara, TTP: Otani, 218b2-219a5.
31 The Abhidhanottaratantra, SKT ms: IASWR 1-100, 93bl-94b6 / Matsunami 10,
100a3-101b2 / Matsumami 12, 117a2-118b3.
The following is the text of the Abhidhanottaratantra. I used the IASWR manuscript
(= ms) as the base manuscript and the Matsunami 10 and 12 as supporting ones
satkulam vinyaset tatra pithadi kramaso nyaset l' ] madhyamandalake nyastvd
vajrasattvam mahasukham II tatraiva purvato dvare pulllramalaye khandakapalinah
pracandah l" } uttare jalandhare mahakahkalacandaksl I pastime odiyanake kahkalapra-
bhdvatl l m) daksine arbude *vikatadamstrina[= vikatadamstrijmahanasa l' v) pramu-
ditayam bhumau madhye vajrasattvah II vlrah krsnah, dakinl bhasmasubhravarna /"'
vira vajravajraghantah, dakinya kapalavajratarjanl II [Note] i) vinyaset ] vinyase —
ms. ii) pulllramalaye ] pulliramalaya — ms.: khandakapalinah ] khandaka(?)palinah
— ms. iii) prabhavatl ] prabhamatl — ms. iv) vikatadamstrina- ] vikatadrastrina —
ms. v) vlrah ] vira — ms.
vairocanacakramadhye bhagavan, buddhadakam mahasukham /'' purvadvara-
dau godavaryam * suravairina[= suravairi]vlramati I uttare ramesvare amitabhakharva-
ri I pastime devikote vajraprabhalahkesvari l" ) daksine malave vajradehadrumacchaya
l/'" ) vlrah sitadehah, dakini pita ll' v) vimalayam bhumau ll" ) [Note] i) bhagavan ]
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
bhagavam — ms. ii) devikote ] devikote — ms. iii) -drumacchdyd ] drumacchayah —
ms. iv) virdh ] vird — ms.: pita ] pitdh — ms. v) Tib adds satis rgyas mkhah hgro ma
after this line.
prabhakaribhumau madhye ratnadakah l' ] purvadvaradau kamarupe ahkurika
airavati I uttare odre vajrajatilamahabhairava /pastime trisakunau mahaviravayuvega I
daksine kosalayam vajrahumkdrasurdbhaksi II virdh pitdh, dakini harita ll" ) [Note]
prabhakari bhumau ] I supplemented these words, following Matsunami 10 and 12 and
Tib. ii) virdh ] vird — ms.
arcismatya bhumadhye padmadakah ll' ) purvadvare kalihge subhadrasyamadevi
I uttare lampdke vajraprabhasubhadra /"' pastime kahcyam mahabhairavahayakarna /'"'
daksine himalaye virupaksakhaganana II vird raktah, dakinyah sitah ll' v) [Note] i)
padmadakah ]padmadakam — ms. ii) vajraprabha- ] vajrabhadra — ms. iii) kahcyam
] kanci — ms. iv) dakinyah ] dakinya — ms.
sudurjayabhumadhye vajradakah I purvadvaradau pretapuryam maha-
balacakravega I uttare grhadevatayam ratnavajrakhandaroha I pastime saurdstre
hayagrivasaundini I daksine suvarnadvipe dkasagarbhacakravarmini II virdh krsnah,
dakini pita ll' ) [Note] i) virdh ] vird — ms. pita ] pitdh — ms.
abhimukhya bhumadhye visvadakah l l) purvadvare nagare sriherukasuvira
l u) uttare sindhau padmanartesvaramahdbala I pastime marau vairocanacakra-
vartini I daksine kulatayam vajrasattvamahdviryd II vird visvavarnah, dakinyo
dhumradhusaravarnah II [Note] i) abhimukhya ] abhimukhyayam — ms. ii)
-suvira ] suvirah — ms.
mandalani tato bahye pretavalya suvestayet I tato bahye visvavajram tu
kone dakinim alikhet ll' ) dakini ca tatha lama khandaroha tu rupini I kapalacaturo
*likhya[= likhitva] madhyamandalakonake II dakini durahgama bhumir acala bhumi[=
-mir] lamaka I khandaroha ca sadhumati rupini dharmameghaya ll n) nila pita ca
rakta haritavarna caturthika I kdkasyadi tu dakinyo visvavarna manoramah II ya-
madadhyadidakinyah ardhanarisvaryas tatha l" l) [Note] i) dakinim ] dakinim — ms.
ii) rupini ] rupinye — ms.: dharmameghaya ] dharmameghaydh — ms. iii) -dakinyah
ardha- ] dakinya'rddha — ms.: -svaryas ] svaris — ms.
The above instruction can be summarized in a table as follows, centered on the cor-
respondence between the ten spiritual stages and the constituents of the mandala of six
lineage-lords.
Bhumi
Holy sites
Lords of six lineages
Pramudita
(East) Pulliramalaya (North) Jalandhara
(West) Odyana (South) Arbuda
Vajrasattva
Vimala
(East) Godavari (North) Ramesvara
(West) Devikota (South) Malava
Buddhadaka
Prabhakari
(East) Kamarupa (North) Odra
(West) Trisakuni (South) Kosala
Ratnadaka
Arcismati
(East) Kalihga (North) Lampaka
(West) Kanci (South) Himalaya
Padmadaka
Sudurjaya
(East) Pretapuri (North) Grhadevata
(West) Saurastra (South) Suvarnadvipa
Vajradaka
Abhimukhi
(East) Nagara (North) Sindhu
(West) Maru (South) Kulata
Visvadaka
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Bhumi
Dakini
Bhumi
Dakini
Durahgama
Dakini
Acald
Lama
Sadhumati
Khandaroha
Dharmamegha
Rupini
Different from the system summarized in TABLE 2, the base concept which struc-
tures the mandala of six lineage-lords is the idea of six lineages rather than that of ten
site-categories. The mandala of six lineage-lords can be stated to be the reformation of
the system summarized in TABLE 2 in terms of the concept of six lineages. From this
standpoint, the twenty-four holy sites are grouped into six lineages and the first six of
the ten spiritual stages are assingned to these six lineages. The remaining four spiritual
stages are connected with the four magical female beings, who are not related to any holy
sites.
a2 TheNispannayogavali, SKT ed: 25 (p.93-98), Mori 2001: 246-247.
33 Sanderson 1995: 95. The Tantrasadbhava, SKT ms: 109b4-110al.
34 It may be possible to interpret this as follows. The Buddhist Yoginitantra scriptures
including the Samvara ones, as is well known, often prefer the reverse order. The reverse
order, for them, means the symbolic upset of the Brahmanical or other socially authorita-
tive norms afflicting people. Through the reverse of the order of holy sites, the compilers
might have asserted the superiority of their Mahayanic system to the Saiva one.
35 The Yul ni bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstanpa, TTP: Otani 4628, 126a4-129a5.
36 The dharmodaya means the origin of the dharmas, constituents of beings and the
universe. The dharmodaya is generally symbolically represented in the form of a triangle.
As I mention in the last paragraph of the third section of this paper, we may say that the
dharmodaya in function corresponds to the yoni in Saivism.
31 'The Jnanodayatantra, SKT ed: p.2, 1.22, p.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9, 1.11-12. 1.15. 1.17, 1.20, 1.22,
p.4, 1.3.
38 The Jnanodayatantra, SKT ed: p.3, 1.4, 1.15, p.4, 1.3.
39 According to the Samputodbhavatantra, the names of these inner channels are (1)
abhedya, (2) suksmarupa, (3) divya, (4) vama, (5) vamini, (6) kurmaja, (7) bhdvaki (8)
seka, (9) dosavati, (10) mahavistha, (11) matara, (12) sarvari, (13) sitada, (14) usma, (15)
pravand, (16) hrstavadana, (17) svarupinl, (18) samanya, (19) hetudayika, (20) viyoga,
(21) premani, (22) siddhd, (23) pdvaki, (24) sumanah, in order [SKT ms: 63al-64a2].
These names derive from those of twenty-four of the thirty-two inner channels preached
in the Hevajratantra [SKT ed: 1.1.16-18].
40 The existence of female practitioners may be suggested by the biography of Mekhala
and Kanakhala in the Caturasitisiddhapravrtti. Mekhala and Kanakhala were given by
Karihapa (= Krsnacarya) an instruction of Vajravarahi, the highest female divinity in the
Samvara tradition.
41 Sugiki 2003b: (16D-Q64), 2007: 137-142.
42 The Cakrasamvaravikurvana, TTP: Otani 4628, 124a5-126a4.
43 Davidson 1991.
44 Davidson 1991, 203.
45 The text tells that Mahadeva performs (sexual yoga) with Gauri in the east at the
first junction of time (thun), with Ekajati in the south at the second junction of time, with
Kalaratri in the west at the third junction of time, and with Umadevi in the north at the
last junction of time.
46 The entire process of this manifestation of Heraka-mandala is connected with the
nature of five Tathagatas as follows: the manifestation of the palace with Vairocana, that
of the body with Amitabha, that of the crown with Ratnasambhava, that of the assembly
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
of divinities with Amoghasiddhi, and that of the armor with Aksobhya.
47 The text does not describe who reside at the top of Mt. Meru at this time and who
produced the scriptures of the Samvara cycle. The Samyaksambuddha is my inference.
48 The Hevajratantra, SKT ed: 1.7.10-18.
49 The Yogaratnamdld, SKT ed: p.122, 1.17-19.
S0 The Muktdvall, SKT ed: p. 70, 1.21-p.71, 1.14.
51 The Amndyamanjari also gives interpretation on this list of holy sites of the Heva-
jratantra [TTO: Otani 2328, 167b3-b8]. According to the Amndyamanjari, the number of
the sites oipilava is five in total: the periphery area of a village or town, Caritra, Kosala,
Vindhya, and Kaumarapaurika.
52 The Kubjikdmatatantra, SKT ed: 14.10 (Odyana, Jalandhara, Purnagiri, Kamarupa).
The Kuldrnavatantra, SKT ed: 6.25 (Uddiyan, Kamaru, Jalandhara, Purnagiri).
The Nitydsodasikdrnava, SKT ed: 1.12 (Kamarupa, Purnagiri, Jalandhara, Sripatha
=Odyana) [Shima 2007: 3]. In the Kaulajhdnanirnaya, the four sites are Kamakhya
(= Kamarupa), Purnagiri, Odiyana, and Arbuda [SKT ed: 8.20-22]. In this scripture,
Jalandhara is replaced by Arbuda. As for some other scriptures which mention the same
or similar four great sites such as the Kdlikdpurdna and other Sakta works, see Sircar
1948: 11-15.
S3 The Hevajratantra, SKT ed: 1.7.10.
54 The Samputodbhavatantra, SKT ms: 47a2-b2. pitham jalandharam proktam
oddidyanam tathaiva ca l l) pitham pollagirim caivdrbudam tathaiva ca //"' upapltham
godavarl proktam rdmesvaram tathaiva ca /devikotam tatha khyatam malavam tathaiva
ca I/'"' 1 kamarupam tatha proktam odram ksetram eva ca /"'- 1 upaksetram trisakunim
ca kosalam ca tathaiva ca II kalihgam tatha proktam lampakam tathaiva ca I kahci
himdlayam caiva l v) cchandoham samuddistam upacchandoha ity api II pretadhivasini
proktam grhadevata tathaiva ca I saurastras tu suvarnadvlpa eva ca I melapakopamela-
pakam tatha II nagarasindhu smasanam caiva upasmasanam marukulata ll v,) karunyam
karmarapatakam tatha harikelam lavanasagaramadhyagam vindhya kaumdrapurika
pllavam ll m) upapilavam tatsamnivesam II smasanam pretasamhdtam codadhitatdn
tatha I udydnam vdpikdtlram upasmasanam nigadyate II [Note] i) pitham ] pitha
— ms.: jalandharam ] jalandharam — ms. ii) pollagirim ] pollagiram — ms. hi)
devikotam ] devikotyam — ms. iv) odram ] odra — ms. v) kahci ] kdnci — ms. vi)
upasmasanam ] upasmasdna — ms. vii) harikelam ] harikela — ms.
5S The Amndyamanjari, TTP: Otani 2328, 167a2-a8.
56 The Mahdmudrdtilakatantra, SKT ms: 17b5-18bl, 18bl-19a2.
SKT ms: 17b5— 18bl bdhydbhyantarayogena pithddikam kathyate 'dhund I
oddiydnam pithdkhydtam pitham jalandharam smrtam P pitham purnagirim caiva
kamarupam tathaiva ca II malavam upapltham ca nagaram sindhu sihghalam I
munmuni ksetram dkhydtam devikotam tathaiva ca II upaksetram kulatd khyatam
arbudam ca tathaiva ca I godavarl visdldksi cchandoham pariklrtitam II harikelam
tatha kahci upacchandohakam smrtam I lampakam cdpi karmarapatakam meldpa-
kam smrtam II dvlpam cdmlkaram tadvan meldpakam ihocyate I upameldpakam devi
kohkanam pariklrtitam II vindhya cdpi tatha jheyam upameldpakam tatah l" ) smasanam
pretasamghdtam tatha jalanidhitatam II upasmasanam caritram kaumdrapurakam
tatha I kasmlram pllavam khyatam tatha kairdtamandalam II nepdlam buddhajanani
' upameldpakamf^upapllavam] smrtam l m) karnakubjam tatha jheyam samdsdd *upa-
melakam[^>upapllavam] ll' v) [Note] i) pithdkhydtam ] rdo rjehi gnas — Tib. ii)
tatah ] tanu — ms./ no word for this — Tib. iii) upameldpakam ] he bahi pi la — Tib.
iv) upemelakam ] he bahi pi la — Tib.
-549-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
SKT ms: 18bl— 19a2. sirasi sthitam vajrapitham sikhdydm abjddisamjhina-
m I pulliram mastake jneyam bhrumadhye kdmarupakam II malavam ndsikdgre tu
caksusoh sindhumandalam /'* nagaram karnayor jneyam sihghalam atha padmakam
ll" } munmunim cibukasthdne kanthasthdne tathaiva ca I devikotah samdkhydtah kulatd
prsthavamsagd II arbudam stanayugmastham hrdaye harikelakam I goddvari ndbhidese
lampdkam guhyamandale ll"' ) kdhcisthdnam lihgamadhye sthitam karmdrapdtakam
l' v) lihgasikhare devi na tathdntargatah kvacit ll v) gude cdmikaram jneyam urubhydm
kohkanam smrtam I jdnudvau ca bhaved vindhyd yathdsamkhyena sundari II jahghayoh
pretasamghdtam pddayos codadhes tatam I kaumdrapuram cdhgusthe caritram
cdhgulisu ca II kasmiram sarvagdtresu kairdtam pddayos tale l ,n) nepdlam trikatisthdne
karnakubjah katitate II [Note] i) sindhu- ] sindu — ms. ii) atha ] mkhah yi — Tib.
iii) goddvari ] goddvari — ms. iv) karmdra- ] karmdri — ms. v) -sikhare ] sikhara —
ms.: devi na tathdntargatah kvacit ] omits — Tib.vi) tale ] tarai — ms.
S7 The Ddkdrnavatantra, SKT ms: Kathmandu D40/6 (= A), 31b7-32a2, Kath-
mandu A142/2 (= B), 34a6-bl. atha pithopapithddi yathdkramdni ca aha
P pitham purnagiris caiva jdlandharam odydyanam ll" ) arbudas ca tathd pitham
goddvaryopapithakam l"' ] rdmesvara-devikotam malavam copapithakam ll' v) kdmarupam
tathd odram trisakuni-kausalakam l v) ksetram kalihgopaksetram lampdkam *kdnci[=
kdncii-himdlayam ll" ) pretapurl grhadevi saurdstram suvarnadvipakam l m) chandoham
copacchandoham nagaram sindhu- marukam lf m) kulutd copacchandoham naditiram
meldpakam l' x) udydnam sdgaram proktam catuspatham copamelakam ll x) girimurdhni
grdmamadhyam vrndakaumdriparvatam l xt) kulaksetropamelakam smasdnam mun-
muni[= -ni] yatah II caritram harikelam ca mdydpuri smasdnakam l x " ) upasmasdnam
parvatdntam sannakhetam surapuram ll xm) karndtapdtakam caiva pilavam tu nigadyate
jxiv) gramdntam kuhkaram caiva karmdrapdtakam vibhuh ll xv) yoginighanapurisam
upapilavam tathdtra ca l xv,) pitrvanam grhapdrsvam taddgam puskariva tu ll xm) esu
sthdnesu yd kanyd sahajds ca svayonijdh l""" ] dese dese vijdniydj jndnayuktddvayasthi-
tdh ll" x) dvddasdndm tu cakrdndm sarabhedena tu pithajdh l xx) dvddasapithddayah
proktdl -ktdh] sattrimsaddhdtukdrandt ll xx,) [Note] i) -papithddi ] papithddim —
B. ii) odydyanam ] odydyana — B. iii) arbudas ] arbudam — B.: pitham ] pitha —
A. iv) -devikotam ] devikota — A. v) trisakuni- ] trisakuna — A.I trisaku(one letter
damaged) — B. vi) -himdlayam ] -himdlaya — B. vii) saurdstram ] saurdstre — B.
viii) -marukam ] murukam — B. ix) kulutd ] kulitd — A.B.: naditiram ] naditila —
B. x) proktam ] proktd — B.: -patham ] pathes — A.: copamelakam ] copamelakah —
A. xi) vrnda- ] vrndd — A.: -parvatam ] parvakam — A. xii) harikelam ] harikelas —
A.: mdydpuri ] mdydpuri — A. xiii) sannakhetam ] shags kyi shin — Tib.: surapuram
] surah puram — A.I surrapuram — B. xiv) karndtapdtakam ] karndtapdtakas —
A.I karnatapdtakam — B. xv) kuhkaram ] kukaras — A.I koh ka na hid — Tib. xvi)
-purisam ] pdrisam — A.I pdristham — B.I groh — Tib.: upapilavam ] upapila — B.
xvii) -pdrsvam ] pdsve ca — B.: taddgam ] taddkam — A./ taddga — B.: puskariva ]
puskaraniva — A. xviii) -yonijdh ]yonikd — B. xix) vijdniydj ] vijdniyd — A.B.: -dvaya-
] 'dvayd — B. xx) cakrdndm ] cakrdnd — B.: -bhedena ] bhedenan — B.: After this, adds
dvddasdndn tu cakrdndm sarabhedenan tu pithajdh — B. xxi) -pithddayah ] pithddayeh
— A.: sattrimsad- ] khattrimsa — A.I sattrimsa — B.
The commentary, the Vohitd, relates that the forty-eight holy sites introduced in
the Ddkdrnavatantra are grouped into twelve site-categories four by four [TTP Otani:
182a4-a6]. This interpretation seems to be the natural reading of the passages of the
Ddkdrnavatantra.
58 The Samputatilakatantratikd, TTP: Otani 2327, 271a2-b4. However, there is a slight
-550-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
difference between the list of the Samputodbhavatantra shown in TABLE 7 and that given
in Indrabodhi's work. In Indrabodhi's work, the sites which are classified into the site-
category pilava are Karunya and Karmarapataka and those into upapllava are Harikela
located at the center of the salty ocean and Vindhyakaumarapaurika. The remaining sites
can be seen as being identical with those shown in TABLE 7.
59 Ratnakarasanti's Muktavall, a commentary of the Hevajratantra, gives a list of thiry-
two bodily parts. Thirty-two inner channels preached in the Hevajratantra, to which
thirty-two bodily components are connected, run through these thirty-two bodily parts
[SKT ed: p. 20, l.ll-p.21, 1.11]. It is obvious that twenty-four of the thirty-two bodily parts
and twenty-four of the thirty-two bodily components derive from those in the system of
holy sites of the first typological tradition. However, Ratnakarasanti does not clearly
state that these thirty-two bodily parts correspond to the thirty-two external holy sites
introduced in the Hevajratantra summarized in TABLE 6. If the copprespondence of the
thirty-two bodily parts to these thirty-two external holy sites is implied in the Muktavall,
it could be stated that Ratnakarasanti had an intention to develop the system of holy
sites as introduced in the Hevajratantra into a system encompassing dimension (C) in the
similar manner as that of the first typological tradition.
60 The Yogaratnamdld, SKT ed: p. 122, 1.11-14. According to the Yogaratnamdld, the
twelve site-categories in the system of the Hevajratantra correspond to twelve of the
thirteen spiritual stages. The order of the stage arcismatl and the stage prabhdkarl is
reversed in this interpretation. The thirteenth spiritual stage Jndnavatl, which is also
known as Vajradharabhumi, does not correspond to any site-categories, for this is the
stage of apratisthitanirvdna according to this work.
61 The Muktavall, SKT ed: p.70, 1.17-19.
62 The Samputatilakatantratlkd, TTP: Otani 2327, 271a2-b4.
63 The Amndyamanjarl, TTP: Otani 2328, 170b6-172a4.
64 The Plthddinirnaya, TTP: Tohoku 1606, 130a5— 131b3. The views found in the
Plthddinirnaya have a closer relationship to the ideas expressed in the first typological
tradition. The Pithadinirnaya's interpretation of the systems found in the Hevajratantra
and the Mahdmudrdtilakatantra insists that ten of the twelve site-categories correspond
to the ten spiritual stages. This work connects the two site-categories pilava and
upapllava with the pleasure arising in the bodhicitta, the overcoming of the narrow-
mindedness of Hinayana, and the abandonment of the moral contamination produced by
one's mental impression.
65 Not in the system of holy sites as shown in TABLE 9 but in the system of Heruka
mandala, the Dakdrnavatantra also connects the twelve site-categories, which are as-
signed to twelve of the thirteen circles constituting the Heruka mandala, with twelve of
the thirteen spiritual stages [SKT ms: Kathmandu D40/6, 25a5-31b7 and Kathmandu
A142/2, 27al-34a6]. (The thirteenth stage is represented by the four gates and four cor-
ners of each fold of this mandala.) Individual sites as listed in TABLE 9 do not appear
in this sytem. Almost the same lines as those explaining the Heruka mandala in the
Dakdrnavatantra appear in the Vdrdhikalpatantra [SKT ms: Matsunami346, 74al-89b7
/ Matsunami347, 64a3-82bl].
66 The Kubjikdmatatantra, SKT ed: 22.23-46. Goudriaan and Schoterman 1998: 125-
126. Sugiki 2003a: (66).
67 The Vajraddkatantra, SKT ed: 18.10-58 (See also Sugiki 2003a: (65)) attahdse
sthitd devT raja devyd samudbhavd I saumyamukheti ca vikhydtd vajrdyudhabibhrati II
tasmin vane sthitd devT kadambadrumam dsritd I mahdghanteti[= -nta iti] vikhydtah
ksetrapdlo mahdbalah II kollagirydm mahdlaksml kardldyonisambhavd I kardlarupd
-551-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
sthitd devi vikrtd cdtibhisand II tasmin nagare sthitd cogrd parvatdgrasamdsritd I
agnimukheti[= -kha iti] vikhyatah ksetrapalo vardnanah II jvdldmukhiti vikhydtd I
khadgahastd sthitd ghord nimbavrksasamdsritd I ksetrapalo mahdkdyo mahdvrateti[= -ta
iti] visrutah II dharanydm samkari jneyd mahocchusmdngasambhavd I gaddyudhadhard
devi dharmaisvaryapraddyikd II tasmin ksetre prasiddhd sd tdlavrksasamdsritd I
urdhvakesa iti khydtah ksetrapalo mahotkatah II devikote[= devikote] karnamoti tu
mahdbalakulodbhavd I sulahastd tu sd devi sarvayogesvari vara II tasmin pithe sthitd
raudrd vatavrksasamdsritd I ksetrapalo mahddeho hetukah paramesvarah II virajdydm
ambikd jneyd mudrdpattisadhdrini I saumyarupd mahddevi kdmaisvaryapraddyikd II
tasmin ksetre sthitdnald[or sthito 'nalah] dmravrksasamdsritd I attahdsamahdnddah sar-
vasattvabhaydvahah II erudydm agnimukhi tu kapdldkulasambhavd I vajrasaktidhard
devi sammohaksetrasamsthitd II tasmin nagare sthitd devi kdncanavrksasamdsritd I
ksetrapalo mahdviryo ghantdrava iti smrtah II tatah pure pihgaldkhyd mahdbhisana-
locand I musaldyudhadhard devi kardldyonisambhavd II tasmin ksetre sthitd devi
jativrksasamdsritd I ksetrapalo mahdjahgho vikrtas cdtibhdsurah II eldpure kha-
rasthd ca pracanddkulasambhavd I pdsahastd mahdbhimd sammohaksetrasam-
sthitd II tasmin bhavane sthitd devi mahdbalapardkramd I gajakarneti[= -rna iti]
vikhyatah ksetrapalo mahdgrajah II kasmire caiva gokarni canddsydyonisambhavd I
vajrasrhkhalahastd ca ripundsanatatpard II tasmin sthdne sthitd devi parvatdgranivdsini
I ksetrapalo mahdbhimo nddijahgha iti smrtah II kramani marudese tu bhimavaktrd
virasambhavd I ahkusapdsadhard devi sammohaksetrasamsthitd II tasmin dese sthitd
devi mahdsthalisamdsritd I ksetrapdlah kardldkhyah sammohakaro brhanmukhah II na-
gare halahastd ca mahocchusmdngasambhavd I vetdleti mahdvidyd sarvaviravarapradd
II tasmin sthdne sthitd bhadrd vetragartanivdsini I romajahgha iti khydtah ksetrapalo
mahotkatah II cdmundeti vikhydtd devatd paundravardhane I mahdbalakulotpannd kha-
tvdhgakarasobhitd II bhuktimuktikard devi asesapdpandsini I kumbhdkhyah ksetrapalo
vai tasmin ksetre vyavasthitah II jayantydm tu prasanndsyd raktakusumasambhavd I va-
jrasrhkhaladhdrinisarvasaukhyavarapradd II tasmin puravare sthitd kutdgdrasamdsritd
I trijateti[= -ta iti] samdkhydtah ksetrapalo mahotkatah II prsthdpure vidyunmukhi
kardldyonisambhavd I dandasaktidhard devi vdmd sarvdsdparipurini II tasmin ksetre
sthitd devi raudrarupo bhayamkarah I ghantdraveti[= -va iti] vikhyatah ksetrapdla
ulukamukho bhisanah II sopdre cdgnivaktrd tu kattdrikarasobhitd I pisitdsand
samdkhydtd sukhaisvaryavarapradd II tasmin ksetre mahddevi sdlmalivrksasamdsritd
I sobhanam sarvakdryesu ksetrapalo bhaydnakah II caritre tu karahjasthd tu
kardldsaktisambhavd I karahjavdsiniti khydtd mudrdsaktidhdrini II tasmin ksetre
mahdghantah ksetrapalo mahdbalah I urdhvakesaphandnvitah sarvadustabhayamkarah
II odydyane mahddevi guhydkhyd yonisambhavd I vajrasrhkhaladhard devi sughord
divyariipini II ksetrapalo mahdnddo ghorarupo mahdbalah I tasmin pithavarasthd
tu asokavrksasamdsritd II jdlandhare tu canddlini jneyd mudrdkattdrikodyatd
I somasambhavamahddevi sarvaisvaryapraddyikd II tasmin pithe sthitd ghord
kanakavrksasamdsritd I janetdkhyo mahdvirah sarvamdrabhaydvahah II ksirike
lokamdtd ca canddnilamahdbalah I khadgahastd mahddevi sarvasiddhipraddyikd
II urdhvakesamahddevi sdlavrksasamdsritd I ksetrapalo mahdmerus tasmin ksetre
vyavasthitah II bhimavaktrodbhavd bhimd mdydpure tu kdmini I vajrasaktidhard
subhd sddhakasya balapradd II krsnarupd mahdghord bhutavrksasamdsritd I bhimo
ndma sthitas tasmin ksetrapalo mahdbalah II putand dmrake caiva sarvaripub-
haydvahd I lahgalagayahastd ca sarvasattvavasamkari II ddrusthd tu mahddevi
sarvasattvabhayamkarah I ksetrapalo mahdvratas tasmin ksetre vyavasthitah II rdjagrhe
vipannd sd vajrdhkusasamanvitd I mahdksatasamudbhutd sarvacakrajaydvahd II tasmin
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
ksetre sthita devi jhilliravabhaydnakd[or jhilliravabhaydnakah] I ksetrapdlo mahdkarnas
tatrdsau nityasamnidhah II bhotavisaye sahajdkhyd makaradhvajadhdrini I svayam-
bhuyonisambhavd saumydsyd divyarupini II tasmin dese sthita devi sailakutasamdsritd
I bhogdkhydf -khyo] mahdvirah ksetrapdlah sudurjayah II mdlave tu tathd sekd
mudrdmudgaradhdrini I sddhakdndm priyd nityam yasasvini prasamsydh syuh II tasmin
ksetre sthita devi madhuvrksasamdsritd I samapumsasvaro ndma ksetrapdlo visvesvarah
IP [Note] i) sama- ] samah — SKT ed. I corrected following the Calcutta manuscript.
68 For more details, see Sugiki 2003a. I was given a suggestion by Professor Alexis
Sanderson and Professor Harunaga Isaacson on the similarity of the lists of holy sites in
the Kubjikdmatatantra and the Vajraddkatantra in question when I was in Oxford from
1998 to 1999 to study the Sanskrit manuscripts of the Vajraddkatantra and so forth.
69 The Kubjikdmatatantra, SKT ed: 22.20-21.
70 Sanderson 2001: 7 note 4. Dyczkowski 2001: 55-56, 79-83 and Map 5. Dupuche 2003:
219-221, 361. For the eight sites in the Brahmaydmala in question, see also Hatley 2007:
233.
71 Sircar 1948.
72 The Tantrdloka, SKT ed: 29.59-63. Dyczkowski 2001: 55-56. Dupuche 2003: 219-
221,361.
73 The Vajraddkatantra, SKT ed: 18.59—60. esu ksetresu yd kanyd virdndm
siddhiddyikd I meldpakam kurvanti rdtrau paryatane sadd II dadati vipuldm siddhim
khecaresu sudurlabhdm I sidhyante sarvakarmdni sddhakasya na samsayah II
74 The Ddkdrnavatantra, SKT ms: Kathmandu D40/6 (= A) 78a5-79b4, Kathmandu
A142/2 (= B) 82al-83a7
First, the Ddkdrnavatantra explains the site Attahasa as follows: atha kahkdlayogena
dese dese svayonijaml -jdh] I jhdnayuktd vijdniydd yoginivirandyaki[= -kih] ll' ]
attahdse raja devi ndyaki sarvayogini l" ] tasmin sthdne sthita devi mahdghantd
kadambadrume II tasya devi sadd virah ksetrapdlo mahdnanah l'" } kahkdlasukhamdyd sd
sambhavantil -ti] mahdtmandm ll' v) mudranam tesu kahkdlam odydnarandhrato gatam
/"' svadhdtusthitavijhdnam sarvadesagatam kramdt II'"'' [Note] i) -yuktd ] yukto —
B.: -ndyaki ] ndyikd — A. ii) raja ] cajd — B. hi) sadd virah ] sadd vira — A.I sadevi
ca — B.: ksetrapdlo ] ksetrapdro — A. iv) kahkdla ] kamkdra — B.: sd ] sa — B. v)
-randhrato gatam ] randhratohgatam — B. vi) svadhdtu- ] svadhdtu — B.
After the above, names of other twenty-three sites are enumerated as follows:
kollagiri-varunydm ca devikota-virajakamf -ke] l' ) airunydf -nydm] tatal -tah] pure
tu eldpure kasmirake ll a) maru-nagare tathd ca pundravardhanaksekrake l'" ) jayantydm
prsthdpure tu sopdre caritre tathd ll' v) odydyane jdlandhare ksirike tu mdydpure l v) ambuke
rdjagrhe ca bhotavisayabhis[= -ye] tathd l" ) mdlave pullirddye tu caturvimsatipithake
//i-») [Note] i) -virajakam ] viramjakam — B. ii) kasmirake ] kasmirake — B. iii)
pundravardhana- ] purnnavarddhana — B. iv) jayantydm ] jayantyd — B.: sopdre ]
sopdle — B. v) jdlandhare ] jdgandhare — B.: ksirike ] ksirike — B. vi) bhotavisaya-
bhis ] bhogavisayabhis — B. vii) pullirddye ] pullimarddya — B. It may be that the
last sentence "pullirddye tu caturvimsatipithake intends that the twenty-four sites begin-
ning with Attahasa in question are another forms of the twenty-four sites beginning with
Pulllramalaya (= the first typological tradition).
Subsequently, abodes of goddesses residing in the above twenty-three
sites are explained as follows: parvatdgra-tdlavrksam vatd-mra-kdncanam tathd
l' ) jativrksapardkramd parvatdgre samdsritd ll" ) mahdsthali-vetragarte asvattha-
kutdgdrakam l"' } udumbara-sdlmali tu karanjd-sokam dsritd ll n) kanakavrksa-sdlam tu
cuta-*dhdru[ ddru] ca dillaki l v) sailakuta-madhuvrksesu ca samdsritd purdt II
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
[Note] i) parvatdgra- ] parvatdgre — B.: vatdmrakdncanam ] vatdmrakdmcanas —
A./ vatdmprakradmcanam — B. ii) jatl- ] kdkl — B.: parvatdgre ] parvvatdgra — A.
iii) -vetragarte ] vetragarbhe — A./ vetragarbha — B. iv) udumbara- ] ondura — A./
odumbara — B.: karahjdsokam dsritd ] kalajjdsokam dsritd — A./ kalamjdsekam dsritdh
— B. v) -sdlam ] sdram — B.
Following the above, information on the lineages or the origins of goddesses
is given as follows.: rajoyoni-ucchusmdhgam mahdbala-yogdlayam l' ) kapdlam rajah-
pracandd yoni-vlra-ucchusmdngam ll" } mahdbale raktd tathd yoni-vira-saktibhava /"°
yoni-somasambhavd tu mahdbalakulodbhavd ll' v) bhlmavaktrodbhavd caiva meda-
mahdksatajakd /"' kusumayonibhydm tathd punar eva padasmrtam l vl) esd kulodbhavd
devT sahajariipT[= -pa] kanyakd ll vn) [Note] i) rajo- ] raja — A./ vajra — B.: -
ucchusmdhgam ] ucchusmdmsa — A.: -yogdlayam ] omits — B. ii) omits this line — B.:
rajah- ] raja — A.: ucchusmdhgam ] ucchusmdmsa — A. iii) mahdbale ] omits — B.:
-vira- ] vl — A.: -bhavd ] bhavah — B. iv) -sambhavd ] sambhdvd — A.: mahdbala- ]
mahdbald — A. v) -dbhavd ] dbhavvd — B.: -ksatajakd ] ksetajakam — A./ ksatejakam
— B. vi) -yonibhydm ] yonim ca tdbhydm — B.: -smrtam ] smrtah — A. vii) esd ] esu —
A./ esa — B.: -kanyakd ] kanyakam — A.
Then, details of goddesses and land-protectors residing in the above twenty-three
sites are given as follows:
(Information on Kollagiri) mahdlaksmy agnimukhi ca ksetrapdlo vardnanah P
agnimukha-m iti khydtah kahkdlasukhavedakah ll" ) tasya cyavanagrahanol -nd]
yoginl dvayakam sphuret /'""> tena samputayogesuf -gena] virddvayasamdsritd ll' v)
sattvesu hitahetvarthl[= -rthinl] sthitd ca vajramandale l v) samcdragatirupena jdyate
sarvadesakof -kd] ll v,) [Note] i) -ksmy agnimukhi ] ksmi gnl mukhi — A. ii)
agnimukha-m ] agnimukhdm — A.: -vedakah ] vedakam — B. iii) sphuret ] spharet —
B. iv) virddvayasamdsritd ] omits — B. v) omits this line — B. vi) samcdragatirupena
] samcdlagatirupesu — A./ omits — B.
(Information on Varum and Devikota) lankesvarl cordhvakesi ksetrapdlo mahotkatah
I urdhvakesa iti khydtah kahkdlasukhahetukah l' } sesam purvokta[= -ktena] vijheyam
visesam varayogini[=-nydh] ll u) karnamoti ca raudrd tu ksetrapdlo mahddehah /'" )
hetukah paramesvaraf -ro] mahdraudrah athdpi vd /'"' kahkdlasukhasunyesu viheyd[=
-yam] paramam padam //"' [Note] i) -hetukah ] hetukai?) — A./ hetukam — B. ii)
sesam ] sesa — A. iii) mahddehah ] mahodahah — B. iv) -raudrah ] raudram — B. v)
-sukha- ] mukha — B.: -siinyesu ] sunyasu — A.
(Information on Viraja and Airuni) saumyarupd cdnald ca ksetrapdlo 'ttahdsakamf -
kah] /'' mahdnddo 'pi vijheyd[= -yo] analdf -las] ca maharddhikah /"' kahkdlacanddlini
tu jvdldmadhye mahdsukham ll'" ) agnimukhi mahdviryd ksetrapdlo ghantdravah I
mahdvirydf -rya] iti khydtah kahkdlasukhasambhavah ll' v) [Note] i) saumya- ]
saukhya — A./ sauksa — B.: -pdlo 'tthahdsakam ] pdldttahdsakam — B. ii) anald ]
anuld — B. iii) kahkdla ] kamkdlam — B.: -madhye ] madhya — A. iv) kankala- ]
kamkara — A.
(Information on Pura and Elapura) pihgaldkhyd bhlsandksi ksetrapdlo mahdjahgha-
kah I mahdbhayalocano vd kahkdlasukhapurakah ll' ) mahdbhlmd mahdbald ksetrapdlo
mahdgajah l" ) athavd gajakarnd tu ksetrapdlo gajakarnakah I kahkdlasukham drudhai -
dhah] sarvanddisu tanmayah II [Note] i) -sukhapurakah ] mukhapurakam — B. ii)
-bhimd ] bhimo — B.: -bald ] balo — B.
(Information on Kasmira and Maru) gokarnd ca parvatdgrl ksetrapdlo mahdbhl-
makah l' } nddijahghah athdpi vd kahkdlasukhalinakam //"' kramani bhlmavaktrd ca
ksetrapdlah kardlakah l'" ] mohakaro brhanmukhah kahkdlasukha-m-dsakah ll' v)
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
[Note] i) parvatdgri ] parvatobhi — B.: mahdbhimakah ] mabhimakah — B. ii) -jahghah
] jamgham — A.I jamgham — B.: kramani ] kramani — B. hi) mohakaro ] mohakalo —
A. -mukhah ] sukham — B.
(Information on Nagara and Pundravardhana) vetdld ca tathd bhadrd ksetrapdlo
romajahghakah P athavd ca mahotkatah kahkalasukhamastukah //"' cdmundd ca
mahddevi ksetrapdlah kumbhdndakah l'" ) athavd ca mahddevah kahkalasukhanrtyakah
IP' [Note] i) vetdld ] vetado — A./ vetddd — B.: roma- ] rama — B. ii) mahotkatah
] mahotkatakah — B.: -mastukah ] mastukah — A. hi) cdmundd ] camundd — A. iv)
kahkdkasukhanrtyakah ] kamkdlo sukhavdm mrkah — B.
(Information on Jayanti and Prsthapura) prasannd ca trijatif -td] ca ksetrapdlo
mahotkatah P trijato 'thavd jneyd[= -yas] ca kahkdlasukhapdragah ll" ) vidyunmukhi
ghantdravd ksetrapdla ulukamukhah I ghantdravo vikhydtas tu kahkalasukhabhaksakah
II [Note] i) prasannd ] pracanda — B. ii) 'thavd ] dho vd — B.
(Information on Sopara and Caritra) agnivaktrd mahddevi ksetrapdlo bhaydna-
kah I mahddevo 'thavd jneyamf -yah] kahkdlasukhatejakah ll l) karahjavdsinl tathd
mahdghantd para smrtd /"' ksetrapdlo mahdbalah kahkdlasukhasobhanah ll'" }
[Note] i) kahkdla- ] kamkdlam — B.: -sukhatejakah ] mukhatejakamh — B. ii)
karanjavdsini ] kalanjavdsini — A.I karamjam ca vdsini — B.: smrtd ] smrtdh — B. hi)
-balah ] bala — A.I balam — B.
(Information on Odyayana and Jalandhara) guhydkhyd tu mahddevi ghorarupd
mahdbald l' ] ksetrapdlo mahdnddo ghorarupo mahdbalah l" ) kahkdlasukhasambhutah
paramdksarayogavdn II'" 1 canddlini ca ghord ca ksetrapdlo jvalitdkhyah l' v) ghorarupdl -
po] athdpi vd kahkdlasukhavesakah ll v) [Note] i) -bald ] balah — B. ii) -pdlo ] pdla
— B.: -rupo ] rupd — B. hi) -sukha- ] mukha — B. iv) canddlini ca ] canddli nila — B.
iv) athdpi vd ] adho pi vd — B. v) vesakah ] vesekah — A.I vesakah — B.
(Information on Ksirika and Mayapura) lokamdtd urdhvakesd ksetrapdlo mahdme-
ruh I urdhvakeso athdpi vd kahkdlasukhajighrakah IP bhimd ca mahdbald ca ksetrapdlo
bhimas tathd l" ) mahdbalo bhimarupah kahkdlasukhamandakah ll'" ) [Note] i) -keso
] kesdm — B.: kahkdla- ] kamkdlah — A. ii) -bald ca ] balo ca — B. hi) kahkdla- ]
kamkdlah — A.: -mandakah ] mandikah — B.
(Information on Ambuka and Rajagrha)pz2tana ca mahddevi ksetrapdlo mahdvratah
I kahkalasukhasdmarthyah sarvendriyasukhas tatah IP vipannd sd jhilliravd ksetrapdlo
mahdkarnah /"' athavd jhilliravas ca kahkdlasukhasyandanam ll" l) [Note] i)
-sdmarthyah ] sdmarthyd — A./ sdmarthya — B. ii) jhilliravd ] dilliravd — A.: -karnah ]
karnakdh — A.: omits this line — B. Hi) jhilliravas ] dilliravo — A.I dillirakam vd — B.
(Information on Bhota and Malava) sahajdkhyd bhogdkhyd ca mahdviras tathd parah
I ksetrapdlah sudurjayah kahkdlasukhagdhakah IP sekd samah pumsesvarah ksetrapdlo
visvesvarah l" ) kahkdlasukham dsina[= -nam] jdyate sukham svecchayd ll'" ) [Note] i)
-gdhakah ] grdhakah — B. ii) pumsesvarah ] pusesvarah — A. hi) kahkdla- ] kamkdlah
— A.: sukham ] sukhantha — A./ sukha — B.: svecchayd ] svecchakah — A.
Following the above sentences, weapons of goddesses in the above sites are enu-
merated as follows: vajra-*mundam[ dandamf?)] gadd sulah pattisam vajrasaktikam
P musalam pdsakas tathd vajrasrhkhald-hkusam ca ll" ) pdsam[= -so] halakhatvdhgam
ca vajrasrhkhalahastakd /"° dandasakti-kattdrikam[= -kd] sakti-vajrasrhkhalikd ll' v)
kattdrika[= -kd] khadgas tathd vajrasakti-ldhgalakam l v) gadd-vajrdhkusas tathd
makaradhvaja-mudgarakam ll"' } [Note] i) -mundam ] munda — B.: sulah ] sula —
B.: pattisam ] pattisam — A.I pattisamkha — B. ii) pdsakas ]pdsam ca — B.: ca ] omits
— B. hi) -khatvdhgam ca ] satvdhgan tu — A. iv) -kattdrikam ] kapdrikam — B. v)
khadgas ] khadgis — B.: -lahgalakam ] lahgalakah — A.I lamgdlakah — B. vi) gadd ]
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
gandha — B.: -mudgarakam ] mumgalakam — B.
Explanations on features, magical powers, seats, and some other attributes of
the goddesses are given after the above sentences. (I skip these.)
7S The Amnayamanjarl, TTP: Otani 2328, 169b7-170b4. Wayman 1995. Sugiki 2003a:
(106). The holy sites in the Amnayamanjarl has already been examined by A. Wayman.
However, Sanskrit names of its holy sites, goddesses, and land-protector gods which he
restored have problems. It seems that Wayman did not notice its relation to the Kub-
jikamatatantra, the Vajradakatantra, and the Dakarnavatantra.
The Amnayamanjarl is a commentary of the Samputodbhavatantra. How-
ever, the system as introduced in the Vajradakatantra does not appear in the
Samputodbhavatantra per se. The Amnayamanjarl introduces the holy sites in
question for interpreting eight sites preached in the Samputodbhavatantra. The eight
sites with associated eight kinds of tree preached in the Samputodbhavatantra are as
follows [SKT ms: 47b2-b4] [Sugiki 2003a: (68)] (1) Vijra and cuta-tree, (2) Kohkana
and somavarna-tree, (3) Caritra and karanja-tree, (4) Attahasa and kadamba-tree, (5)
Devikota and vata-tree, (6) Harikela and hari-tree, (7) Odyana and asoka-tree, and (8)
Jalandhara and kanaka-tree. (The Samputatantratilakatika identifies somavarna-tree
with asvattha-tree. The Amnayamanjarl identifies hari-tree with haritaki-tree.)
The Pithadinirnaya also introduces the above list and comments that Ambika
and Anala reside in Viraja, Karanjavasim and Mahaghanta in Caritra, Karnamoti in
Devikota, Guhya and Mahabala in Odyana, and Candalim and Janeta in Jalandhara
[TTP: Tohoku 1606, 135b7-136a3]. It is most probable that these assignments of
goddesses and land-protectors are based on the instructions given in the Vajradakatantra
(see TABLE 12).
The intention of the Samputodbhavatantra in the above instruction seems to be the
introduction of eight mother goddesses.
76 The fourth section of the 50th chapter of the Dakarnavatantra gives a list of names
of scriptures which were compiled before the Dakarnavatantra. The Vajradakatantra
is included in this list [Kathmandu D40/6, 82b3-b6, Kathmandu A142/2, 86a8-all].
The Muktavali of Ratnakarasanti, who flourished before Abhayakaragupta, quotes some
verses from the Vajradakatantra [SKT ed: p. 18-19]. These suggest that the compilation
of the Vajradakatantra is before those of the Dakarnavatantra and the Amnayamanjarl.
See also Sugiki 2007: 16-17.
"The Pithadinirnaya, TTP: Tohoku 1606, 136b6-b7.
78 The Kalacakratantra, SKT ed: 2.2.38-40. The Vimalaprabha, SKT ed: p.177, 1.25-
p.179. 1.11. The difference between the system of the fourth typological tradition in ques-
tion and that found in these Kalacakra texts can be explained as follows. First, in the
Kalacakra system, the inner channels running through the nirmanacakra and the dhar-
macakra are not identified with magical females assigned to external holy sites. Second,
the Kalacakra system according to the Vimalaprabha equates twelve joints of one's body
through which the inner channels run with twelve site-categories and with twelve spiri-
tual stages [SKT ed: p. 73, 1.23-24]. (The Kalacakratantra per se does not have this second
instruction [SKT ed: 1.7.20].) These twelve site-categories are (1) pitha, (2) upapitha, (3)
ksetra, (4) upaksetra, (5) chandoha, (6) upacchandoha, (7) melapaka, (8) upamelapaka,
(9) vesman, (10) upavesman, (11) smasana, and (12) upasmasana. These are the different
points between the Dakarnava system in question and the Kalacakra one.
79 The Dakarnavatantra, SKT ms: Kathmandu D40/6 (= A) 14a9-b5, Kathmandu
A142/2 (= B) 14b9-15a6. I also used the following manuscripts as supporting sources
(Kathmandu B113/3 [= C], 16a5-b7, Kathmandu B113/6 [= D], 23a2-bl) and two Sanskrit
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The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
manuscripts of the Yoginljalatantra (Skt ms: Baroda 13253 [= E], 23a9-24a3 / Mat-
sunami 313 [= F], 52a6-53b5), which gives the same instruction as the Ddkdrnavatantra.
catuscakrasarojesu nddl[= -dyah] satam ca vimsatih l' ] *tesdm[= tdsdm] ndmam[=
-ma] yathdnydyam vaksyate tattvabhdjane //"' [Note] i) nddl ] nadi — B.: satam ca
vimsatih ] satas vimsatim — A./ satam ca vimsati — B. ii) tesdm ] tesu — B.: -bhdjane ]
bhdjandm — B.
madhyadesl kalihgl ca odrl karndtakl sari /'* saurastrl malayl vahgi
' ' dravadl[^>dravidl] catalihgakl ll" } malavi tu mahdratthl varendrl kdmarupinl /'"'
dahali tavidesl ca bhadari rddhamdgadhl H' v) tirasutti daddarandl nepdll rasavasinl /"'
radhl tikkarl vahgall khddl ca harikelakl ll ,n) suvarnadvlpl * sihgall[^>simhall] ca domadi
ca kattorakl l m) sindhuhimalayi budl kulutl jadarl [or jadadharT] pathl ll v '" ) jajjabuti
varunl ca odiydnl lampakakl l' x> jalandhari arbudi ca kasmiri kausali *kanci[= kanci]
ll x) jayanti trisakuni cambhi luhari purarohiki l x,) *mummuni[^>munmuni] kambojaki
ca bhattolikl grhadevatl ll xu) pretapurl babharl ca pelavT copapelavi /""' smasanl upa-
smasani mahodadhitati khasi ll x,v) mlecchi ca sarvadesaki devicatuhsastih kramat l xv)
nabhicakresu yoginyah vijneyaf -yah] kulanddikah ll xv,) [Note] i) kalihgl ] kalihga
— A.: odrl ] udrl — A./ odda — B. Followed A with a slight modification: kalihgl ] karimgl
— B. ii) saurastrl ] saurastrl — A./ sorastrl — B.: vahgl ] vihgl — A.B. Followed C. in)
malavi ] maravl — B.: -ratthl ] rabdhl — A./ rathl — B. Other manuscripts say raththl.
(See also Cunningham 2002 [1871]: 745, according to which Maharathi is Maharastra,
and Bhattacharyya 1999 [1991]: 210, which mentions that Maharattha is Pali form of
Maharastra.): varendrl ] varendl — A./ varandl — B. Followed A with slight modification,
iv) dahali ] damhall — A./ dohall — B. Followed A with a slight modification.: bhadari ]
bhada — B.: radha- ] radhl — A. v) tirasutti ] tiraputtl — A.: daddarandl ] daddharandl
— A./ daddavarnl — B. Followed C and D. (Derived from daddharapuraP. See also
Bhattacharyya 1999 [1991]: 111.): nepall ] nepalam — A.: rasavasinl ] saravasinl —
A./ Tib mhan yod ma suggests sravastl. vi) radhl ] rati — A.: tikkarl ] dhikkarl —
A.: vahgall ] vahgall — A.: harikelakl ] harikelakl — A. vii) sihgall ] sihgall — A.:
domadi ca ] damadl ca — A./ domadlra — B./ The other manuscripts support domadi,
B's reading, viii) kulutl ] kulutl — B.: jadarl ]jadadharl — B./ Although metrically bad,
the other manuscripts support B's reading rather than As. ix) varunl ca ] vuruna cam
— B.: odiydnl ] odiydna — B. x) kasmlrl ] kasmiri — B.: kausali ] kaukald — B. xi)
jayanti ] jayanti — K.I jayanti — B.: trisakuni ] disaknl — B.: cambhi ] cambha — B.:
luhari ] ruharl — B.: purarohiki ] purarohikd — B. xii) bhattolikl ] bhattorikl — B.
xiii) pelavl copapelavi ] pelava (two letters blurred) pelavl — A./ pelava copapelavi — B.
xiv) smasanl ] smasdnanl — B.: upasmasdnl ] upasmasdnanl — B.: khasl ] sasl — A.
xv) -catuhsastih ] catusastlh — A. xvi) ndbhi- ] bhdbhi — B.: -nddikdh ] nddlkdh — A.
hrdayacakre tathdsta "dhutikdl dutikd] sarvagdminl l l) praydgl devlkotl ca uj-
jayinl mahdlaksml ll" ) jvdldmukhl siddhasimbhall mdhill *kaumdrlpaurikl[^>kaumdra-
paurikl] l'" ) evam sarvaf -rvd] hrdi sthdne mdydkdraksetrinl //" ) [Note] i) -cakre ]
kre — B.: tathdsta ] tathd asta — B. ii) praydgl ]prayoga — B.: devlkotl ] devikotls — A./
devlkotas — B.: ujjayinl ] ujjayinydm — B. iii) jvdld- ]jdld — A.: siddha- ] siddhi — B./
omits — Tib.: kaumdrl- ] kaumdri — B. iv) -ksetrinl ] suksetrinl — A.
Although Sindhu and Himalaya are the independent sites, the "sindhuhimalayi"
seems to be the name of one inner channel, which is suggested by the manuscripts listed
above and the Vohitd.
80 The Yoginljalatantra, SKT ms: Baroda 13253, 23a9-24a3 / Matsunami 313, 52a6-
53b5.
81 The Ddkdrnavatantra, SKT ms: Kathmandu D40/6 (= A) 15b6-b8, Kathmandu
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Genesis and Development of Tantrism
A142/2 (= B) 16a9-all. sandhidvadasam evdtra hastapadesu sarvatah /'' pahca
pahca hi vijheyd dvadasaih sastindlikd ll" ] mandalesu ca vdhinyd samkrantidvadasam
matamf -tarn] /"° vamadaksinatas cdpi mesapurvddi mantravit ll' v) sesacatvari
randhresu nabhimedhradviparsvayuhf -yoh] l v) [Note] i) sarvatah ] sarvvata —
B. ii) dvadasaih sastindlikd ] dvadasai sastinalinalika — B. iii) samkranti- ] sagranti
— B. iv) -purvadi ] puvvadi — B. v) -catvari randhresu ] ca catvari randhesu — A./
catvagandhesu — B. The line "vdmadaksinatas cdpi mesapurvddi mantravit" explains
the connection of the right and left principal inner channels i.e. lalana and rasana with
the twelve zodiac.
Concerning the theory of the wheel of time (in other words, about ghati and
samkranti) expounded in the Ddkarnavatantra, see Sugiki 2005: (162)-(179).
82 See the previous note.
83 Okano 1999: (15)-(16).
84 With regard to the orthodox system, I used as mainly sources two texts titled Asta-
mahasthanacaityastotra ascribed to Nagarjuna, the text translated into Chinese by Fa
t'ien titled Fo shuo pa ta ling t'a ming bao king, and the Astamahasthanacaityavadana
ascribed to Harsadeva (restored Sanskrit version printed in Bagchi 1941 and its Tibetan
translation and Chinese transliteration).
85 The works ascribed to Harsadeva and Nagarjuna and the text extant as a Chinese
translation, which we are examining, are the instances of the hymns.
Abbreviations and primary sources
SKT ed. Sanskrit text critically edited.
SKT ms. Sanskrit manuscript.
TTP. Tibetan tripitaka (Tibetan translation).
TTP: Tohoku. Tohoku University Catalogue of Tibetan tripitaka (sDe dge edition).
TTP: Otani. Otani University Catalogue of Tibetan tripitaka (Peking edition).
Ch: Taisho. Taisho tripitaka (Chinese translation).
Abhidhanottaratantra. The Abhidhanottaratantra, SKT ms: the Institute for Ad-
vanced Studies of World Religions, no 1-100 (palm leaf), University of Tokyo, Mat-
sunami catalogue no 10 (paper) and no 12 (paper).
Astamahasthacaityavadana. The Astamahasthacaityavadana of Harsadeva, SKT ed
(restored Sanskrit text): See Bagchi 1941, TTP: Tohoku no 1168, Ch: Taisho no
1684.
Astamahasthanacaityastotra (1). The Gnas chenpo brgyad kyi mchod rten la bstod pa
of Nagarjuna, Tib Tohoku no 1133.
Astamahasthanacaityastotra (2). The Gnas chenpo brgyad kyi mchod rten la bstod pa
of Nagarjuna, Tib Tohoku no 1134.
Amnayamahjari. The dPalyah dag par sbyor bahi rgyud kyi rgyal pohi rgya cher hgrel
pa man hag gi she ma of Abhayakaragupta, TTP: Otani no 2328.
Kalacakratantra . The Srilaghukalacakratantrardja, SKT ed: Jagannatha Upadhyaya,
Srilaghukalacakratantrardjatika Vimalaprabha I, Central Institute of Higher Ti-
betan Studies, 1986.
Kubjikamatatantra. The Kubjikamatatantra, SKT ed: T. Goudriaan and J.A. Schoter-
-558-
The Structure and Traditions of the Systems of Holy Sites
man 1998., The Kubjikamatatantra, Kulalikamnaya Version, Orientalia Rheno-
Traiectina XXX.
Kularnavatantra. The Kuldrnavatatnra, SKT ed: Taranatha Vidyaratna,
Kularnavatantra (Arther Avalon, Tantrik texts vol 5), Luzac, 1917, London.
Text with English translation: Ram Kumar Rai, Kularnavatantra, Prachya
Prakashan, 1999, Varanasi.
Kaulajnananirnaya. The Kaulajnananirnaya of Matsyendranatha, SKT ed: P.C.
Bagchi (English translation by Micheal Magee), Kaulajnana-nirnaya of the school
of Matsyendranatha (Tantra Granthamala no 12), Prachya Prakashan, 1986,
Varanasi.
Cakrasamvaratantra. The Cakrasamvaramahayoginitantraraja = The Herukabhidha-
natantra = The Tantrarajasrilaghusamvara, SKT ed: Janardan Shastri Pandey,
Cakrasamvaratantram with Vivrti Commentary of Bhavabhatta, 2002. SKT ms:
Oriental institute Baroda, accession no 13290 (palm leaf).
Cakrasamvaravikurvana. The Yul hi bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstan pa dan dpal hkhor
lo bde mchog gi mam par hphrul pa of Naropada, TTP: Otani no 4628.
Cakrasamvarabhisamaya. The Cakrasamvarabhisamaya of Luylpada, SKT ed: Sa-
kurai, Munenobu, "A Critical Study on Luyipada's Cakrasamvarabhisamaya" (in
Japanese), Journal of Chizan Studies 47, Association of Chizan Studies, pp.(l)-
(32), 1998.
Dakarnavatantra. The Dakamavamahayoginitantraraja, SKT ms: the National
Archives of Kathmandu, reel no D40/6 (paper), no A142/2 (paper), and no B 113/3
(paper).
Dakamavamandalacakrasadhana. The dPal mkhah hgro rgya mtshohi rgyud kyi dkyil
hkhor gyi hkhor lohi sgrub thabs rin po che pa dma ra ga gter of Jayasena, TTP:
Otani no 2231.
Dakarnavamandalarcanavidhi . The Srldakarnavatantroddhrtasrimahasamvarasa-
parikaramandalarcanavidhi of Ratnasena, SKT ms: the National Archives of
Kathmandu, reel no B24/52 (palm leaf) and no A921/3 (paper).
Tantrasadbhava. The Tantrasadbhava, SKT ms: the National Archives of Kathmandu,
reel no A44/2 (palm leaf).
Tantraloka. The Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta, SKT ed: R.C. Dvivedi and Nayjivan
Rastogi, Tantraloka of Abhinavagupta with the Commentary of Jayaratha, 1987.
Nispannayogavali. The Nispannayogavali of Abhayakaragupta, SKT ed: Yong-Hyun
Lee 2004.
Pithadinirnaya . The Gnas la sogs pa gtan la dbab pa of Sakyaraksita, TTP: Tohoku no
1606.
Mahamudratilakatantra. The Mahamudratilakatantra , SKT ms, Staatsbibliothek zu
Berlin, no Hs.or.8711 (paper).
Muktavali. The Muktavali hevajrapanjika of Ratnakarasanti. (See Hevajratantra.)
Yul hi bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstan pa. The Yul hi bcu bshihi rgyu mtshan bstan pa
dan dpal hkhor lo bde mchog gi mam par hphrul pa of Naropada, TTP: Otani no
4628.
Yogaratnamdld. The Yogarantamala hevajrapanjika of Kanhapada, SKT ed:
D.L.Snellgrove 1959.
-559-
Genesis and Development of Tantrism
Yoginijalatantra. The Yoginijalamahatantra, SKT ms: Oriental institute Baroda, ac-
cession no 13253 (paper), and University of Tokyo, Matsunami catalogue no 313
(paper).
Yoginisamcaratantra. The Yoginisamcaratantra, SKT ed: Central Institute of Higher
Tibetan Studies, Yoginisahcaratantram with nibandha of Tathagataraksita and U-
padesanusarinivyakhya of Alakakalasa, 1998.
Vajradakatantra. The Vajradakamahayoginitantraraja, SKT ms: the Royal Asiatic So-
ciety of Bengal, Sastri catalogue no 72 (palm leaf) and University of Tokyo, Mat-
sunami catalogue no 343 (palm leaf), SKT ed (chaps 1, 7, 8, 14, 18, 22, 36, 38, and
42): Sugiki 2002 and 2003a.
Vasantatilaka. The Vasantatilaka of Krsnacarya, SKT ed: Samdhong Rinpoche and
Vrajvallabh Dwivedi, Vasantatilaka by Caryavrati SriKrsnacarya with Commen-
tary: Rahasyadipika by Vanaratna, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies,
1990.
Varahikalpatantra. The Vajravarahikalpamahatantraraja, SKT ms: University of
Tokyo, Matsunami catalogue no 346 (paper) and no 347 (paper).
Varahyabhidhanottara. The Phag mo mhon par brjod pa bsad pahi rgyud kyi phyi ma
las phag mo mhon par byah chub, TTP: Otani no 22.
Vimalaprabha: The Vimalaprabha of Kalki Sripundarika. (See Kalacakratantra .)
Vohita. The dPal mkhah hgro rgya mtsho rnal hbyor mahi rgyud kyi rgyalpo chenpohi
hgrel pa gru gzihs of Padmavajra, TTP: Otani no 2136.
Samvarodayatantra. The Samvarodayatantra, SKT ed: Shin'ichi Tsuda, The Samva-
rodayatantra — selected chapters, The Hokuseido Press, 1974, Tokyo.
Samputatilakatantratika. The dPal kha sbyor thig le shes bya ba rnal hbyor mahi
rgyud kyi rgyal pohi rgya cher hgrel pa yah dag par Ita bahi dran pahi snah ba of
Indrabodhi, TTP: Otani no 2327.
Samputodbhavatantra. The Samputodbhavatantra, SKT ms: Cowell and Eggeling cat-
alogue no 37 (palm-leaf).
Svayambhupurana . The Brhatsvayambhupurana, SKT ed: Pandit Haraprasad Sastri,
The Vrhat Svayambhu Puranam Containing the Traditions of the Svayambhu
Ksetra in Nepal, Bibliotheca Indica, new series no 837, Calcutta, 1894.
Hevajratantra. The Hevajratantra, SKT ed: Ram Shankar Tripathi and Thakur
Sain Negi, Hevajratantram with Muktavalipahjika of Mahapanditacarya
Ratnakarasanti, 2001.
Fo shuo pa ta ling fa ming bao king. The Fo shuo pa ta ling fa ming bao king, Ch:
Taisho no 1685.
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